Crossing Worlds 2: Runners Prerogative
by Sightbent
Summary: All Takuya wanted to do was spend his down time with that special someone, but a call for help from another dimension has him back as a Runner alongside his allies. Now he'll have to do things a bit different than he has before while working with some familiar, but different faces, through times that have passed. 02x04
1. Best Laid Plans

**Chapter 1**

**Best Laid Plans**

In the cosmic scheme of it all plans rarely work out exactly the way people want them to, and that goes double for Runners. More often than not they broke down into a kind of chaos that could only be remedied by a series of quick decisions that keep them a few steps ahead of death and failure, not that there's much difference between the two when it came to missions as a Runner. The ones that don't eventually sink into disarray, being kept alive by measures of fast thinking, were the ones that left a Runner with making the choices that they probably would prefer to avoid. When it came down to those missions one couldn't keep thinking like themselves, and would instead have to work outside their comfort zone and adopt new methods; methods to preserve life and the mission. To these ends a Runner must be creative, dedicated, and be able to adapt to the rapidly changing situations they faced. This is one of the ways of a Runner. And one of the reasons they are so needed in the Multiverse.

On this mission, Takuya would be forced to put his ways to the test. No amount of planning or knowledge can prepare any who get involved for what they'll face when a history written once already begins to twist in the powerful commotion of the Multiverse. However, that's getting ahead of the story, for now it only starts with the crumbling of some weekend plans and a new mission. From there, things are going to change and continue to do so.

An hour ago Takuya had been on his way to visit his girlfriend, Kari, how he loved to say those words, in her Zone for a few days, but now, he was standing on the edge of a cliff in some other Zones Digital World. All around him was the destroyed and desolate environment of an area blacken by a strange force. Somehow something felt somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn't place it so he pushed that feeling to the back of his mind for the moment as he stood anxiously at the edge, the winds blowing up from the valley below causing his coattails of his black duster to billow up behind him.

He had been there for half an hour now, waiting for the Digital Ruler of that Digital World to arrive and explain why they had need of his services; the help of a Runner. Standing there he couldn't help but get bored, which in turn caused his mind to wander, and soon he became lost in the events of the past and the changes they had brought about.

It had only been a little over two months since Takuya's mission with the Sealed Digivice had ended. Two months since he had met the girl of his dreams. Two months since he had stolen her heart and she had stolen his in kind. Two months since they had been able to do anything develop their relationship, which is why he had been attempting to travel to her Zone.

The sound of branches snapping from somewhere behind him brought him back down to earth. Instantly his head whirled around to the source of the intruding noise and spotted a pair of scared Gotsumon trying to climb a hill in the distance. The pair seemed to be having some trouble, so Takuya decide that he mine as well help them out while he waited.

"Hey, do you two need some help over there?" Takuya called over to the two rock digimon. When they heard Takuya's voice they became increasingly frightened, now that they had been made aware of his presence, which was enough to get them over the steep hill and out of view.

"That was kind of weird… But not very surprising considering the surroundings. Seriously, what happened here," he commented to himself before turning back around to look out over the valley and wait.

Once again Takuya's mind began to wander as he played with the pink metal bracelet around his right wrist. He ran his fingers over each letter as he said them quietly to himself.

"K… A… R… I…" Takuya read off as a smile spread across his lips. He could still remember how they had traded the bracelets with their names on them before they separated from each other after the mission with the Sealed Digivice had ended.

Thinking of her brought a warm feeling over him and soon he couldn't feel the cold wind blowing all around him. He passed his remaining time thinking about her and how they hadn't been able to spend any time with each other since that day and what he planned to do with her once he rectified that. No one ever said that it would be easy, but missions suddenly getting dropped on him made it much more difficult. That thought was all it took to get him thinking about what had transpired an hour ago.

* * *

He had just arrived at Lady Ophanimon's castle where the supreme angel should have been waiting to open a corridor to Kari's home Zone, but that wasn't the case. When he had stepped into the throne room he had found Lady Ophanimon having a talk with an unseen voice over the Dimensional Corridor. He couldn't hear what either was saying since it was all done through mental exchanges, but he knew the look she got on her face when she was doing it. So with nothing else to do he waited quietly for her to finish, but as he did an uneasy feeling began to creep over him.

A minute later the look of contemplation disappeared from the angel digimons face and she began to speak to him.

"Takuya, I have something important to ask of you," she began.

"What is it?" Takuya asked, the uneasy feeling within increasing by the second.

"A few minutes ago the Digital Ruler of another Zone reached out through the Dimensional Corridor seeking help with a problem his world is facing. I picked up on it and offered him our services," Lady Ophanimon explained with a hesitant tone.

Here it came, the reason for the uneasy feeling that was spreading through Takuya's mind and gut.

"Unfortunately, they need help as soon as possible, and, Koji and Koichi are currently on a mission right now, so I was hoping that…" Lady Ophanimon spoke as the hesitation in her voice increased.

"You were wondering if I would go?" Takuya finished her inquiry for her.

"I'm sorry… I know you where really looking forward to seeing Kari after so long, but they are very much in need of your aid," Lady Ophanimon replied remorsefully.

"Saving the day is what I live for!" Takuya reassured her and himself. He had hoped that cheerful response would shake some of the depression he was now feeling about the possibility of not getting to see Kari for an even longer period of time, but it helped very little.

"Thank you," Lady Ophanimon sadly sighed as she began to prepare a corridor to the distressed Zone. She felt bad about having to delay Takuya's plans to see Kari and only hoped he would get some time when the mission was over.

"It's no problem, school's on break for a week and I already have Zoe and Tommy covering for me, so don't worry about it," Takuya said as he checked over his gear. To be on the safe side he had equipped all of his normal travel gear despite his original planning only being to visit Kari. After the last mission had gone all sideways, there was no reason not to be prepared just in case.

He was wearing his new field gear which consisted of. A new pair of very dark blue jeans littered with different deep zipper pockets and a crimson red shirt. A pair a brown steel toed boots refitted to allow for better movement. The same well worn brown bracers and fingerless gloves on his arms; the pink metal bracelet on his right being the only new addition there; and a new dark black leather duster went over it, hiding the hunting knife and other supplied he carried behind his back.

With everything set Lady Ophanimon shared the basics of the mission before Takuya left.

"You're going to meet the ruler at these coordinates once you get there. You might have to wait a while for him to arrive though, it seems his movements are being restricted by something," Lady Ophanimon explained as Takuya zipped up his jacket so that it wouldn't whip around as he traveled through the Dimensional Corridor.

"Right, so what's the mission goal?" Takuya asked trying to get himself prepare while listening to more information.

"Unfortunately, his connection was weak and all I could get was that he was in urgent need of help and where to meet him," Lady Ophanimon answered. It was apparent from her tone that she was unhappy about the lack of information she had been able to ascertain, but not much could have been done in the situation.

"Anything about the Zone I'm going to?" Takuya probed again, seeing if he'd get anything with a different question.

"Besides from the fact that it has a stable Real and Digital World with a strongly established connection, no. However, I am unsure about some strange energy I've been getting from it," Lady Ophanimon sighed wishing she could give him more to work with or that she had more time to investigate the Zone and situation herself before sending him in.

With no real helpful answers available, he surrendered to the circumstances and jumped into the Dimensional Corridor opening beneath Lady Ophanimon and was soon traveling to his destination. A few minutes later he was standing in a blackened field, a quarter of mile from the meeting place, and had to walk the remaining distance to the location. While he walked he hoped that the environment wasn't a sign that he was too late and the worst had already happened.

* * *

There he was, an hour later, waiting for his contact in the Zone to come and greet him. If they were coming at all that was. He didn't like to think about the idea that the world might have already fallen so he really hoped that this Digital Ruler arrived soon. He wouldn't have to wait much longer though, because Takuya suddenly felt a powerful presence approaching him from above.

"Greetings, young one, I welcome and thank you for traveling such a long way to be here," greeted a booming voice coming from a swarm of gathering clouds above.

Instantly, Takuya knew who the voice belonged to, even without the flashes of blue that radiated from the clouds. The realization brought him back to his feeling of having been there before, but now it was even stronger than before.

"It wasn't a problem, Azulongmon," Takuya reassured the Digital Ruler.

The blue and yellow helm of the great dragon emerged from the cloud cover and smiled through its long white whiskers. "I still thank…? How did you know who I am?" The dragon digimon asked in a surprised tone. It seemed that I had taken him a few seconds to realize that the boy had used his name.

"Let's just say that we've met before and stick with that," Takuya joked, knowing full well that he was the only one who understood his own comment.

"I don't quite understand, but I believe it doesn't matter now. However, I feel that I should introduce myself nether the less. I am Lord Azulongmon, ruler of this Zone," Azulongmon concluded.

"Right… The name's Takuya Kanbara, a Runner by trade and choice," Takuya shifted awkwardly on his feet, he wanted to get the mission started in hopes that whatever he wanted wouldn't take that long, even less if he hurried it along and skipped the pleasantries. "So why did you need to receive help from outside your own world?"

"The problem started a few hours ago when an evil force from the Real World opened multiple digital portals all over both worlds. These portals pulled in many lost digimon, who are now wandering the human world, lost and confused," Azulongmon explained, a solemn gaze coming to his eyes.

Suddenly, it all seemed so familiar that Takuya could already guess some of what Azulongmon was about to tell him.

"Let me guess," Takuya interrupted. "Now the main Destined of this Zone are traveling around the world and joining up with other Destined to return the rogue digimon to the Digital World."

"Yes…! How could you have known that?" The surprise on the Digital Rulers face was a bit entertaining to Takuya, enough so that he wanted to play a bit more.

"I can even guess the names of these, Digidestined, who are at the center of all this if you want," Takuya boasted playfully.

"Really!?" The confused Digital Ruler bellowed.

"Kari, Tai, Sora, Matt, TK, Izzy, Mimi, Joe, Davis, Ken, Yolei, and Cody. Right?" Takuya listed off the names he knew very well with a sly smile, knowing that his answer would surprise and impress the Digital Ruler.

"Yes!?" Being the only response Azulongmon could muster up. "But how?"

Of course this all had seemed familiar to him. It was just like all of the stories he had heard two months ago from Kari and Tai about their past adventures. They had been skillfully descriptive of the whole series of events, enough that being amongst it had sparked a feeling of déjà vu within him despite him not actually having been involved. He had arrived in a similar Zone, just a few years behind the one he had visited; more like been stranded in. The Digidestined of this Zone where currently in the middle of their World Tour mission that had, and was currently, taking them across the globe.

"Like I said before, we've met before," Takuya hinted, but was unwilling to reveal the exact reason why he knew.

"It seems this Multi-verse theory is going to take some getting used to, but I feel that I'm starting to understand your words a little bit," Azulongmon sighed, a brief look of what could have been mistaken as tiredness crossing his features.

"But I doubt that's the reason you've reached out for help," Takuya commented. He knew from experience that the Digidestined had some trouble resolving the current problem, but they were still more than capable of handling the situation, so he imaged something else must have been happening. That or this Azulongmon was just much more of the nervous type than the one he had met.

Azulongmon simply nodded in agreement with his statement before answering with a serious tone. "Yes, if that were the only problem we faced I believe they'd be able to handle it. However, there's more going on behind the scenes than they know of. It seems that during all of the confusion an unknown force has slipped some infected digimon in amongst the rogue ones in an attempt to get them into the Digital World."

"Infected?" Takuya inquired, the claim piquing his interest. This development was new to him. There hadn't been any mention of infected digimon in the sibling's stories.

"Yes, by an incredibly destructive virus that threatens the whole Digital World," Azulongmon stated a tone of disgust to his words.

"That's horrible! But why go through such a complicated process to get the virus into the Digital World? I mean sneaking them in among a bunch of digimon who've escaped into the Real World seems like a whole lot of unnecessary work to me," Takuya questioned the digital deity.

"That is true, but in this instance it has to be done that way. The virus can only be brought into the Digital World by a high level portal. A level of portal which only the Digidestined can access and open," Azulongmon did his best to make the Runner before him understand.

"And this unknown enemy knows that the Digidestined will send the lost digimon back to the Digital World through the portals instead of killing them," Takuya concluded as the he put the final pieces of the puzzle together.

"Correct," came the answer he had been expecting, but he still felt there was something else wrong with the situation.

"Okay, I'm starting to get the idea, but I still don't know why you called for help. Can't you just contact the Digidestined and warn them about the infected digimon?" Takuya inquired in an attempt to solve the question nagging at him.

"Therein lays the problem. When I became aware of the virus, all channels of communication and travel to the Real World on this side were cut off. The Digidestined can send digimon here, but no one can send anything there from here," Azulongmon sighed tiredly. Obviously he had been trying hard to find a solution to the problem even before he had reach out to other Zones.

"That sounds like it took some serious evil hacking skills and power to pull off, but at least now I see why you need someone like me. You need someone who can enter the Real World through the Dimensional Corridor and stop the infected digimon from getting to the Digital World," Takuya filled in the rest of the blanks on his own.

"Correct again. You need to destroy those digimon before they enter the Digital World and the virus is released," Azulongmon confirmed, becoming more optimistic about the dire situation the more the Runner before him proved to understand the problem.

"This whole thing's horrible and all, but destroying innocent digimon is a little difficult for me morally," Takuya responded. It wasn't like Takuya hadn't taken out digimon in the past he wish he could have avoid; Digimon who left him with no other choice. But killing one just because some villain had inserted a virus into their code wasn't something that sat well with him.

"At least from your response I can tell you're a good person. I was worried about who might show up when I reached out," the lightening digimon explained, his voice sinking a bit as he seemed to briefly ponder something in the reaches of his mind.

"Thanks, but calling me a good person doesn't help the dilemma," the Warrior of Flame retorted with a awkward chuckle.

"Do not be fooled, these are not real digimon. They're embodiments of the virus, beings created from its code with no other thoughts or feelings other than those that will aid them in infecting the Digital World. They my pretend to be innocent digimon, but in truth they know full well about the virus and what bringing it to the Digital World will do. For that reason they must be deleted in the Real World where the virus is inactive and will be destroyed, or else the Digital World will fall into ruin," Azulongmon offered more of the information he had gather; informtaion that he thought would be of help in easing the boy's conscience.

"That on the other hand, does help. But still, there remains a problem. I know the character of the Digidestined and they won't believe me when I tell them they have to kill what appear to be innocent digimon without any proof. They'll believe a lot, but this will be too much of a moral dilemma for them," Takuya assured the Digital Ruler who gave him a confused look when he spoke about the Digidestined with such familiarity. "And even if they did believe me, I wouldn't want them to have to do something like that… something that dark and unsure."

"You are most likely right, young one," Azulongmon sighed, depressed by the current situation. "How will the Digital World be saved from this threat when so many forces are working against us?"

Takuya stopped to think for a few seconds before giving a surrendering sigh and answering. "There's still a way, but I really don't like it." He couldn't help but taking pity on the struggling Digital Ruler.

"Why? What is wrong with your plan?" Azulongmon voice filled with a mixture of returning hope and concern.

"The problem is… it's kind of dark," Takuya mumbled, his head sinking on his shoulders as he thought about it.

"What is it?" Azulongmon asked, his interest piqued by the boys claim.

"I'll play that answer close to the chest for now since I don't know if I'll actually have to use it yet," he really didn't seem to like the plan, which he expressed with an annoyed sigh. "I really just don't want to say it out loud until I'm sure it'll actually come down to it, so let's let it drop until then."

"I see…" The Digital Ruler seemed unsure of what to say, but with the Runner not willing to talk about the subject any further and no other options, he was left with only the choice to agree. "I only hope that what you have in mind will work."

"It probably will," he didn't sound to reassuing, but that's all he had to say before he reaching into his coat pocket. "Okay, now that we're in agreement about the situation, let me get in contact with Lady Ophanimon and get the process of creating a corridor to your Real World underway," he pulled out what appeared to be a cell phone.

This particular cell phone was actually a new addition to his gear. Lady Ophanimon had it made after the incident with the Sealed Digivice. This special cell phone, or Runners Phone as Lady Ophanimon called it, was created for the sole purpose of staying in touch with her and the other Runners; namely Koji and Koichi. It couldn't be blocked or damaged like the Zone communication functions in the D-tectors had been two months ago and it gave crystal clear reception across Zones… most of the time…

After punching in a number Takuya hit the send button and the call connected. "Lady Ophanimon, can you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm receiving you just fine despite the disturbance coming off of that Zone," Lady Ophanimons voice came through the ear piece.

"Well, I know what the situation is here, and I need to talk with you about a few things," Takuya remarked with a sigh.

A short time later Takuya had finished explaining what he had learned and had made a request for a corridor linked to the real world of the Zone.

"I'll get started on the corridor for you," Lady Ophanimon replied once he had finished talking.

"Thanks."

"While I prepare the corridor I have one more thing to address. Takuya, have you felt any different than normal since you've been in that Zone?" Lady Ophanimon asked, a worrisome tone present in her words.

Takuya didn't like the sound of that question, especially since he had been feeling a little off since he had arrived. He had just told himself that it was the desolate environment playing with his mind and had brushed it off, but now that Lady Ophanimon was asking questions he didn't feel so confident that it was only in his head.

"Yes…? Why?" Takuya asked in an uneasy voice.

"Can you try and spirit evolve for me now?" Lady Ophanimon requested.

"Okay…" The uneasiness he felt was beginning to deepen.

Takuya pulled out his D-tector and went through the motions of activating his spirit evolution, but the red and black device remained silent and he stayed human. This couldn't have meant anything good. And the fact that Azulongmon was now staring at him questioningly, confused by his strange motions and cry during his attempt to transfom, didn't help anything.

Saying Takuya was shocked by this development would have been an understatement. "What happened?" He gasped as he looked his human hands and body over.

"You're still human aren't you?" Lady Ophanimon asked over the Runners Phone like she had been expecting that result.

"Yes. What's going on?" He nearly shouted into the mouth piece.

"That Zone seems to give off an incomplete kind of Zone Energy that isn't compatible with spirit evolution. I believe that due to the strange energy patterns the only mode of combat that will work there is a partner relationship," Lady Ophanimon calmly explained. Takuya really wished that she would sound a bit more concerned about him and the problem.

"Great, that means I'm powerless here," an annoyed sigh slipped from him while memories of his first week after being injured during the Sealed Digivice mission came flooding back to him at the prospect.

"Not powerless. Just unable to spirit evolve," Lady Ophanimon corrected him.

"Aren't those pretty much the same thing for me?" Takuya inquired.

"It doesn't have to be," an almost playful chuckle could be heard in her voice. Could she seriously be enjoying the situation a little? "I'm sending you a new program. Hold your D-tector up to the display of your Runners Phone and push the scan button."

Doing as he was instructed Takuya put the two devices together and hit scan. Suddenly, fractal code, light, and strange symbols passed from the phone to the D-tector which began to shake. When the phone went silent the D-tector continued to vibrate and then began to emit a bright light. Soon it burst into a blinding flash of light which quickly dissipated, leaving Takuya and Azulongmon staring at the now smoking device.

"There. All done," Lady Ophanimon announced some success.

"Nothing happened… I still feel the same," Takuya commented, still a little shaken up by what had just happened.

"Roll the dial until the symbol of flame overlapping my symbol appears, then hit the top button," Lady Ophanimon ordered.

Takuya complied. He soon found the two symbols and pushed the button. Suddenly, there was another flash of light which went dark quickly. Nothing had seemed to change from before until Takuya felt a presence from right behind him. He quickly spun around and locked his brown eyes with a pair of green ones.

Standing behind him was a light red skinned digimon with black nails. It had on a pair of red pants with symbols drawn on them and a black belt holding them up. The digimon had long messy red hair and a pair of sawed off horns protruding from its head. This digimon Takuya knew all too well, it was Flamemon.

"What's going on here Lady Ophanimon?" Takuya asked still trying to get over the shock.

"Hey there, partner," Flamemon greeted him in a voice somewhere between Takuya's younger tone and Agunimon's.

* * *

To be continued…


	2. Getting to Know Yourself

**Chapter 2**

**Getting to Know Yourself**

"Hey there, partner," Flamemon said, surprising Takuya.

"…Hey…" Was all Takuya could muster through the shock.

"Are you going to be okay, buddy?" Flamemon looked up curiously into Takuya's face. He had to look up since he was nearly a foot and a half shorter than Takuya.

"Lady Ophanimon, what's going on?" Takuya inquired, having finally recovered enough to ask that important question.

"Remember when you first left the Digital World five years ago and your spirits took on physical forms to continue your good work," Lady Ophanimon began, recalling memories long since past.

"Yeah," Takuya answered without taking his eyes off of Flamemon who had started performing different stretches to loosen up his body.

"Unfortunately, when that happened they proved to be weaker than when you children combined with them. So when they fell against Leviamon, I chose to return them to all of you. However, the program to give them form was never completely removed, so all I did was re-activate it, and now you have a temporary partner while you're in that Zone," Lady Ophanimon explained so simply despite the oddity of the subject.

"That's great… but won't that make future missions much more difficult for me," Takuya asked having realized that he might have just lost his spirit and primary method of combat.

"No, once this mission is over your spirit will return and Flamemon will disappear. Hence my use of the word temporary," the digital angel responded as if it was just that simple.

"That seems really messed up. Isn't that the same as killing him?" Takuya protested. He might have dreaded the loss of his spirit, but he the morality of the other option weighed even heavier on him.

"No, since he is essentially you," Lady Ophanimon replied.

"Okay… I don't get it…" Takuya didn't even bother to try and hide his feelings of confusion.

"Remember how the Warriors you left behind five years ago thought like you and had many of your skills and personality traits?" Takuya just nodded at the phone, still too stunned to realize that she couldn't see him doing so. "That was because they were created from parts of your own mind. They were the physical manifestation of your subconscious when you were all eleven. So when he disappears, he'll just be returning to your mind in a sense," Lady Ophanimon stated, trying to put it as simply as she could. From Takuya's constant complaints about her and Koji being too technical with him she had learned to be as basic as she could.

"So I'm essentially working with myself," Takuya commented as he rubbed his temples. He was close to understanding it, but a few parts of it still escaped him.

"Yes, and no. He is parts of you, but Flamemon also has a digimon side that was created from the remaining memories still within the Spirit of Flame," Lady Ophanimon answered.

"I'll take your word for it, so let's just forget about all of that before my brain explodes," Takuya sighed in defeat. He came to the conclusion that it was better to forget everything at the moment and wait until it actually became important.

"Sounds like a plan to me, buddy," Flamemon spoke up after he finished stretching.

"Lady Ophanimon, is there anything I should know about this partner style of combat. I heard a lot about it from Kari and Tai, but a lot of it was about feelings and just knowing," Takuya inquired as he tried to remember everything he had heard from the Digidestined on the subject.

"Not much. Since you share a deep link with the Spirit of Flame you will just know how to make him evolve, but unlike a normal partnership you will have to be the one to initiate the evolution. He can't evolve on his own no matter what happens or how much trouble you or him get in," Lady Ophanimon explained.

"That's going to be a serious drawback," Takuya sighed. He was really starting to wish that he hadn't gotten out of bed today. This mission had already come at a bad time and it was starting out on the wrong foot, so he could only imagine it continuing to get worse.

"But unlike the partnerships you've witnessed before, you will have complete control over his evolutions and his stats," Lady Ophanimon noted on a more upbeat tone.

"What does that mean?" Confusion once again swept over Takuya.

"It means that you control when and to what level he digivolves too. As well as things like his strength, speed, defense, and power. It will be up to you to control these things during battle to give him the best chance at victory," Lady Ophanimon added.

"That means I'll be counting on you, partner," Flamemon interjected before returning to watching Takuya with a complacent smile.

"How do I do those things?" Takuya asked, eyeing the now vacant D-tector in his hand. Somehow it felt lighter and colder to Takuya, but on the other hand it made him feel like it was connected to his soul.

Over the next five minutes Lady Ophanimon explained how to work his D-tector as a Digivice. What he needed to remember was the dial on the side shifted through the options and the buttons selected and controlled the different options. It was a lot deeper than that, but for now he only needed the basics. After testing out some of the opinions Lady Ophanimon announced that the corridor to the human world was finished and he could leave at any time.

"Young one, before you go. I believe that this will be of use to you," Azulongmon called him to a stop before he made a ball of blue light form in front of the Runner.

"What is it?" Takuya asked as he poked it with his finger, which sent sparks flying off it.

"It is DigiCore that will allow you to travel anywhere in the Real World and Digital World in an instant," Azulongmon answered with a hint of pride in his tone.

"That'll be useful. But how am I supposed to carry a glowing ball of data with me and go unnoticed. I'm not even going to mention the fact that it shocks me every time I touch it," Takuya commented as he nursed his singed finger.

"Takuya, select the functions tool bar on your Runners Phone and pick the 'store new application' option. Then hold it up to the DigiCore and hit the enter button," Lady Ophanimon interrupted.

Takuya did as he was told. He picked the option and the held the phone up to the DigiCore and hit enter. The phone started to emit a bright light from the display screen, which was followed shortly by a high pitch digital sound. Without warning a flash of light temporally blinded them and when the light ceased the orb was gone.

"What happened to it?" Takuya wonder out loud.

"It was stored in your Runners Phone. Now all you have to do is select the new option labeled 'Jump', then use the mapping program to choose your destination and hit enter. When you do, you will be teleport anywhere you want in that Zones Real or Digital World," Lady Ophanimon explained.

"Why don't we have anything like this in our world? It would make things a lot easier for us," Takuya inquired of the angelic digimon on the other end of the phone. His question was half driven by how useful the ability would be to their jobs as Warriors of their world, while the other half was giddy with how much it would cut down his travel time to school and the places he could freely go.

"You need the Transport Access Key Digicore to do that, and unfortunately Lucemon took it with him when he was destroyed," Lady Ophanimon sighed, regretting its loss at the hands of the former Digital Ruler of the Frontier Zone.

"That sucks," Takuya and Flamemon responded in unison.

"It's time to get moving you two, before the Digidestined of that Zone start sending back the first batches of infected digimon," Lady Ophanimon announced as the portal to the Dimensional Corridor appeared before them.

Taking a last look at each other Takuya and Flamemon jumped into the portal and where deposited on the roof of a high-rise in the real world. By looking around Takuya was able to ascertain that they were somewhere in Odiaba; the most logical place for Lady Ophanimon to start him off on his search for the Digidestined.

"So what's our first stop?" Flamemon asked, assuming that from what Takuya had told him that the Digidestined were already on the move.

"If I remember right, it should be New York," Takuya told his new partner. "And we don't have much time to prepare."

"Then break out that phone of yours and let's get to New York," the fire digimon cheered.

"Right," Takuya pushed the locking mechanism on the red and black metal phone and it sprung open to reveal a neon blue screen and a numbered touch pad. He quickly selected the 'Jump' option, scrolled the map over New York City and hit enter. There was a split second paused before they were engulfed in a bright light and disappeared from the rooftop. When the feeling of being pulled up and down and the bright light subsided the two found themselves standing on a rooftop in New York City. If it hadn't been for the change in time of day and surroundings they wouldn't have been sure they had even moved.

"That was cool… and a little painful," Flamemon spoke with a groan of discomfort.

"Yeah… but why is everything bursting into bright light today!" Takuya added with an agitated yell.

All of a sudden a private jet flew over head. It was low to the ground in an obvious attempt to land somewhere in the city.

"That should be Davis now. On his way to met up with Mimi and some other Destined from this Zone," Takuya said making sure to note where the plane landed.

"Shouldn't you have me digivolve to BurningGreymon and fly you somewhere closer to the landing zone," Flamemon suggested.

"No, we'll just draw unnecessary attention to ourselves if we do that. Everyone is on the lookout for digimon right now, so we'll travel while staying out of sight until we find the infected faker digimon," Takuya answered the red digimon.

"Sounds good. Let's get going, buddy," Flamemon announced as he followed Takuya to the rooftop elevator access.

* * *

At the landing site Davis, Mimi, and Michael (their American Destined contact) were currently trying to stop an angry Cherrymon from destroying a giant Christmas tree, while unbeknownst to them infected digimon were hiding among the good ones. They also didn't know that a Warrior from a different dimension was about to cross paths with them.

After a small fight and a lovely flower necklace from Lilymon the raging Cherrymon was finally brought under control.

"Man, that was a pain," Davis complained.

"Yes, but at least it's done with," Mimi pointed toward the brighter side of the events.

Walking between a Mammothmon and a Golemon, Davis made his way to the laptop and held up his D-3.

"Are you all ready to get back to your own world?" Davis asked with a big smile before he turned back towards the computer and prepared to open the portal.

Seconds before he could utter the words necessary to open the gate something veiled in flames dropped from the sky and crashed right down on top of the Golemon and scared all the others. Davis and the other children's attention was instantly affixed to the impact point, where a dragon digimon with wings the color of fire and covered in red, white, and gold armor stood with its foot firmly placed on the Golemon's neck.

"Where did that digimon come from?!" Davis yelped in surprise.

Wasting no time BurningGreymon activated the golden blasters attached to his arms and aimed one down at Golemon's head. As they sprung open a wave of heat and a burst of flame were released, distorting the cool night air.

"What is he doing!?" Mimi cried.

"Wait! Don't!" Davis shouted.

Even though he had heard the boy, BurningGreymon had no intention of stopping.

* * *

Takuya and Flamemon had just arrived in time to see the fight between the decorative Christmas tree and the Cherrymon start. Taking advantage of this extra time they made their way up to the roof of a nearby building overlooking the street where the Digidestined planned to send the lost digimon back to the Digital World. The two walked right up to the edge and looked down, watching the Digidestined try to get the crazed Cherrymon under control.

"How are we going to tell which ones are infected?" Flamemon asked.

"I've got just the tool for that," Takuya smiled as he reached into one of the inner pockets of his jacket and pulled out a second pair of goggles.

The new pair of goggles had red metal rectangular frames with a black stretchy band. The lenses appeared to be made of some kind of reflective steel which one wouldn't expect to be able to see through. He quickly wiped them clean before holding them up to his eyes without putting the band around his head. Once they were over his eyes the view in front of him was replaced by a digital wireframe representation of the streets and digimon below with strange numbers and displays scrolling by on the sides.

The new piece of technology was something Lady Ophanimon had created along with the Runners Phone so that what happened during the Sealed Digivice incident didn't happen again. It allowed for the visual tracking of digital and dimensional anomalies; Scanners is what she had called them. In as few words as possible, they allowed him to physically see things he would normally have to sense out, such as energy or wavelengths.

The Scanners quickly processed the scene below and locked onto two digimon with target radials. Takuya reached up and pressed a small button on the frame of the right lens, eliminating everything but the two digimon within the targets. The lens then focused in tight on the sickly red wireframe outlines of the digimon and began to spew out lines of code on the sides. However, while most of the data was something that only Izzy or Ken, maybe even Koji and Koichi, would understand, Takuya only cared about the symbol that popped up. Both digimon had been tagged with pulsing yellow biohazard symbols.

"According to the Scanners that Golemon and Mammothmon are giving off a foul energy from their bodies and have been tagged as priority dangers. There's no doubt that they're the viral digimon," Takuya pointed out the two digimon.

Taking as much time as he could to prepare for the moment of truth Takuya zipped up his black duster all the way to the collar and flipped the hood over his head to hide everything but the lower half of his face. He felt that he had to at least act the part he was about to play. Although he mainly did this so his eyes wouldn't give him away. So they wouldn't give away the fact that he didn't want to do this.

Taking one last deep breath he gave Flamemon the order to evolve and carry out the plan. With that BurningGreymon flew off the roof and dive bombed the two digimon.

* * *

All the Digidestined gathered there could do was watch as the next few seconds passed and the event unfolded before them.

Quickly turning his attention to the Mammothmon on his left, BurningGreymon used all his strength to drive his left claws and blaster into the infected digimons side. It pierced deep inside, but he knew it would take more than that to kill this fake digimon. Summoning up the power of fire into his blaster he unleashes his attack from within the Mammothmon.

"PYRO BARRAGE"

Suddenly flames began to pour out of the wound, followed by out of the digimons mouth, ears, and eyes. A second later the infected digimon burst into a cloud of digital bits, with a final blast from its mighty trunk becoming its swan song. BurningGreymon then focused his attention on the Golemon pinned under his foot. Once again he summoned up the flames and called out his attack.

"PYRO BARRAGE"

The blast connected with the Golemon's head at point blank range, completely destroying it in a hail of fire and digital fragments. A few seconds later the rest of the body would follow and turn into little bits of data as well.

Davis and the others just stood there unable to comprehend what had just taken place in front of them. A digimon had just dropped out of the sky and killed two innocent digimon in such a short amount of time that they were unable to react. To them it had to be an evil digimon to have done something like that. This couldn't have been further from the truth.

"Why did you do that?" Davis yelled having recovered enough to talk.

"…" The fire digimon gave no reply.

From high above Takuya saw the fight come to a quick and decisive end; he also saw that the digimon on the ground where preparing to engage BurningGreymon, so he decided to put an end to it and move onto the next location. He put his fingers up to his lips and let out a loud, high pitch, whistle to call his partner back to him. Hearing his partner call him BurningGreymon bent his legs and arched his wings, using the force from the two to propel himself high into the air with incredible speed, leaving the onlookers in shock once again.

They watched as the dragon digimon flew above one of the high rises and landed next to a figure completely covered by a black jacket. It was an imposing image. The extremely powerful digimon still venting flames into the night sky standing at the ready for an order from a faceless and emotionless figure in a black coat which billowed in the wind behind him; truly a frightening scene.

"Is that a human!?" Lilymon's surprise was evident in her voice.

"It's probably a digimon in disguise like Mummymon and Arukenimon," Davis growled, having used a bit of his past experience to try and understand what he was seeing.

"Davis, what's that in his hand?" Exveemon inquired of his partner after spotting something familiar.

Davis squinted his eyes in an attempt to see what his partner was talking about. "What's what?"

This would be the most shocking moment of their night. This horrible realization would hit them hard.

"That's a Digivice!" Mimi cried. Even from this distance a Digidestined could make out a Digivice, even if it didn't appear to be a model they were familiar with.

"What!? You've got to be kidding me! That digimon just killed two innocent digimon, and he's the partner digimon of some Digidestined!" Davis stated to no one in particular, anger and confusion clouding his senses.

"Why did you do this?" Mimi demanded an answer from the cloaked figure. Even though she couldn't see his eyes she knew that he was looking straight at her when she spoke.

"…" He gave no response; he just turned away from them and walked across the roof out of sight.

"You're not getting away!" Davis yelled as he hopped on Exveemon's shoulder and ordered him to fly up to the rooftop. If they hadn't been in such a rush they may have notice the flash of light from the rooftop, but this time it escaped them.

Davis and Exveemon reached the roof in a matter of seconds, but found it and the surrounding rooftops to be empty. Whoever they had been, they were gone now.

"They're gone!" Davis cursed.

"Davis, we have to finish up here before something else happens," Mimi called up to the boy.

"Right..." Davis said in a defeated tone as they returned to the laptop on the ground and sent the remaining digimon home to the Digital World.

"Try and cheer up Davis. We succeed in getting them back to the Digital World after all. That's a victory in my book," Michael did his best to cheer the younger boy up.

"It sure doesn't feel like a victory," Davis moaned, trying not to let the feeling of defeat swallow him up.

A new twist has been thrown into a story once told. How will it change the future this Zone will face?

* * *

To be continued…


	3. Playing Bad to be Good

**Chapter 3**

**Playing Bad to be Good**

Once again the flash of light subsided and Takuya put the phone back in his jacket pocket, which felt heavier now with the change of location bringing a warmer change in temperature. However, it might not have just been the increase in heat and his coat that made him feel heavy. No, what was weighing down his body and mind the most was what he had been forced to do moments ago. Unable to find any other options he had been forced to implement his last resort, the plan he had called, _dark_, and wanted to avoid.

* * *

*Less than an hour ago, atop of the New York skyscraper*

"They're getting pretty close to sending those viral digimon to the Digital World, so if you've got a plan this would probably be the time to share it," Flamemon watched the Digidestined get the rogue Cherrymon under control and continue along the road towards the park.

Takuya had to chuckle inwardly to himself as he thought about how much he hated being left in the dark when it came to what was happening around him, especially when he was younger, so he could only imagine how much it was bothering Flamemon. "I have a plan… I was just hoping that while I watched them I would be able to come up with something else… but that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Sorry to hear that, but I think we're going to need that plan now," Flamemon was starting to feel more and more anxious as the digimon began gathering in the park.

Without saying a word Takuya removed the D-tector from his pocket and selected the evolution option. In a flash of fractal code Flamemon was replaced by BurningGreymon.

"What do I do now?" BurningGreymon looked to his partner for guidance as to what to do next. He had just suddenly evolved him with no clear indication as to why.

"You attack and destroy the two viral digimon. Simple as that," Takuya responded stepping up to the edge of the building.

"What…?" BurningGreymon wasn't sure if he had heard his partner right, because if he had, he might have to write him off as crazy. "I don't think the Digidestined are just going to let us kill two digimon right in front of them."

"No, they won't… which is why you're going to have to be quick about it. Get in and get out before they can overcome the surprise of it and react ," was not the response the digimon had been expecting.

"This can't seriously be your plan," he really hoped that Takuya was just messing with him. "This almost makes us seem like the bad guys."

"That's exactly how they'll see it," Takuya glanced up at his temporary partner and gave a small sigh. "We don't have time to explain everything and get them to trust us. We could attempt it with Davis and Mimi for a while, but by the time we reached an understanding I'm sure that at least one or more of the other groups will have sent some viral digimon to the Digital World, which is game over. So instead, we're going to cut out the middle man and delete them ourselves by playing the bad guys. They might hate us after this, but at least their world won't crumble because of it."

"Okay…" BurningGreymon still felt a bit hesitant, mainly it was the young side of Takuya, the pure side untouched by his years as a Runner, gnawing at his conscience. "So tonight…"

"Tonight they get a whole new type of enemy…" With those final words from Takuya the plan was cemented and put into action.

* * *

*Present Time*

There was no going back now. They had chosen their method and plan, and would have to follow through no matter what happened now.

"So where are we now?" Flamemon inquired.

"Hong Kong," Takuya replied, his disappointment over his choice still evident in his voice.

"So which of the Digidestined are here?" He had expected that question from the partner digimon, but he still wasn't ready for it.

"Izzy and… Kari…" Takuya answered. He had taken a moment before saying Kari's name, maybe he was missing his girlfriend or maybe he didn't like the idea of doing what he was about to do in front of her; even if it was only an alternate version.

"What's with you? Aren't you a little excited to see Kari when she was younger?" Flamemon offered in hopes that it might relax Takuya.

"…" He said nothing.

"Well, I'm kind of excited to see her. After all, I am you when you were eleven. The same age as the Kari of this Zone should be," Flamemon smiled.

"…" Still nothing.

"I hope she has a tail, or maybe some cute horns," Flamemon thought out loud. This finally managed to get Takuya's attention.

"I really hope that's your digimon side talking… or else I have some serious issues that need to be dealt with," Takuya tiredly laughed.

"I hope so too, partner. For your sake," Flamemon laughed, glad that he had final gotten a response out of Takuya.

"Okay, let's move out," Takuya announced as the two set out in search of Izzy and Kari.

* * *

At the border between China and India the Digidestined gathered there had just finished convincing the Chinese army to allow the digimon to pass by.

"I can't believe that worked," Izzy sighed glad to be done with the tense standoff at the border.

"That was pretty scary, wasn't it?" Kari exhaled finally feeling that they could relax.

The caravan of digimon and Digidestined continued on towards Hong Kong along a ravine with high walls of rock. They believed that this path would offer little in the way of resistance and have the least amount of eyes watching them. Little did they know but it also made for the perfect ambush point.

"We'll be there soon," Izzy told the group as they turned a blind corner.

"That's good. I hope the others…" Kari cut off as a strange feeling came over her. It was odd feeling, almost familiar in a way.

"Hey, are they with you guys?" One of the Indian Destined asked pointing ahead of them.

"Is who with us?" Izzy inquired following the direction of the girl's finger.

At the end of the ravine standing on a large rock formation, in the middle of a bottle neck opening, stood a figure cloaked in black with a hood covering his face. His striking appearance really made him stand out in contrast to the surrounding area and the bright afternoon sun. Adding to the effect of the dark figure was a large armored dragon digimon with fiery wings standing beside him.

The sight of the two brought them all to a stop as they tried to figure out why the Digidestined and digimon had appeared before them now.

"What are they doing here?" Izzy questioned himself aloud; something about the situation raising caution flags within him. The computer whiz was the furthest from being someone attuned with his sixth sense for danger, but the two's posture and presence was enough for even him to catch on to the idea that they were a force to be reckoned with.

"Maybe they want to help," a hopeful Destined called out.

"We'll go and ask them why they're here," Kari offered motioning for Angewomon to advance toward the two. For some reason she felt compelled to meet this person.

"Wait, Kari!" Izzy insisted.

As soon as those words left Izzy's mouth the figure in black raised his right arm up level with his shoulder and spread his fingers forward towards the group. An instant later the dragon digimon kicked off the ground behind him and flew towards the group with incredible speed.

* * *

Takuya and BurningGreymon had arrived just as the procession of digimon was coming across the border.

"There they are," BurningGreymon growled from under his faceplate.

"Yeah, but there's too many eyes around here for us to make our move. If the army sees what a digimon battle is like they might overreact and do something stupid. And I for one don't want to be responsible for starting World War III… Or whatever number comes next in this Zone," Takuya noted as he watched the Digidestined head in the direction of the ravine.

"So then, when do we attack those infect digimon?" BurningGreymon asked after seeing the group of digimon disappear behind the rock walls of the ravine.

"Let's get ahead of them and find a good spot," Takuya decided.

A few minutes later they were standing at the end of the ravine overlooking a team of soldiers who had been ordered to watch over the group of digimon movements.

"Yes sir. We'll report any strange behavior the moment it happens," one of the soldiers said into a walkie-talkie.

"So we've just got to sit here and wait?" Another asked.

"Looks that way," the soldier with the walkie-talkie answered.

Above them Takuya and BurningGreymon were watching them from behind the cliff side, trying to figure out what to do with the possible witnesses.

"Those guys are going to be a problem," Takuya whispered.

"Should we find another place to take those infected out?" The dragon digimon asked quietly.

"No, by then it might be too late. This point is secluded from view and there is no place for the infected digimon to escape to when go on the attack," Takuya explained.

"Okay, but what do we do about the soldiers on lookout duty?" BurningGreymon asked confused by Takuya's sudden change of strategy.

"_We,_ do nothing. I'll take care of the soldiers," Takuya replied before slipping away and quietly sliding down the cliff face, leaving his confused partner behind.

Takuya quietly approached the three soldiers with all the stealth skills he could muster. He could hear the men discussing what they had heard about the creatures they would soon be seeing. As he approached he saw one of them preparing to stand up so he quickly ducked behind the jeep parked on his right.

"I've got to take a leak. Call me when they get here," the soldier with the walkie-talkie announced before standing up and walking past the jeep on his way to a large rock.

Takuya couldn't believe his luck. He was having some doubts before as to whether he could pull his plan off without the men getting some kind of warning out, but now it was going to be much easier.

Getting up from behind the jeep he crept over to the large rock the man had gone behind and pressed himself up against the hard surface. He was only going to get one chance at this so it had to be done right, or he was going to be faced with two armed soldiers.

Peeking around the corner he spotted the man who seemed to be having some trouble with his zipper at the moment and making a lot of noise while trying to pull it down. It was now or never. Takuya quickly wheeled around the corner of the rock and slide to a stop right in front of the startled man who reached for his side arm. He never got to use it though, since a fast and powerful punch to his gut knocked the wind out of the man who lost consciousness a second later. Takuya made sure to catch the man, since the sound of his falling might attract the other two, and leaned him up against the side of the large rock. Now, all that was left was the other two.

"Hey did you hear how they communicated with the creatures?" One of the soldiers asked trying to stifle a laugh.

"Yeah, I guess that means us soldiers have a career in advertising if the whole fighting thing doesn't work out," the other laughed.

"Actually, I've always thought about going into…gaww!" The first soldier stopped in mid-sentence as a foot planted itself squarely across his face, sending him sliding along the ground and into a state of unconsciousness.

"What the… umphh!" The second soldier tried to react but was taken down by a quickly strike to the back of the neck from Takuya.

"Sorry about that guys, but this is kind of important," Takuya said as he stood over the unconscious forms of the two soldiers. The sound of rocks tumbling down the side of the cliff told Takuya that his partner was on his way down to join him.

"Are they going to be alright?" BurningGreymon asked out of concern for the men.

"They'll be fine. Just a little sore when they wake up," he answered.

After putting the other two soldiers behind the large rock with the first one, BurningGreymon flew Takuya over to a rock formation in the middle of the ravine where they awaited the Digidestineds arrival. A few minutes later the targets rounded the blind corner and came face to face with the two.

Seeing the younger form of Kari shook Takuya's determination more than he had expected her too. The idea of what he was about to do in front of her, and what she would think of him afterwards was really messing with his head. But he knew that the Digital World was counting on him. He had a job to do and it was going to get done. Using the time they gained by the Digidestined discussing how to approach the two of them, they were able to pick out the fake infect ones for the real with his Scanners hidden in the shadows of his hood.

"BurningGreymon, the Gorillamon, Ponchomon, and Tyranomon are the targets this time," Takuya pointed out the targets from beneath the black hood as he raised his arm beckoning his partner forward.

"Right!" BurningGreymon growled as he tore off towards his targets.

BurningGreymon quickly closed the gap between himself and the first infected digimon and plunged his blaster and fist deep into the stomach of the Tyranomon that was out in the lead. Using the same technique he had used to take down Mammothmon a short while ago he unleashed searing flames into Tyranomon's body destroying him from the inside out.

The sudden charge and deletion shook the Digidestined. The person that had assumed was a Digidestined coming to help them was now attacking them, and had just deleted a digimon; which was something they hadn't witnessed in a few years.

"What's going on!? Why's he attacking us!?" Angewomon yelled out in surprise.

"I don't know, but we have to stop him!" Izzy rejoined.

"You're right!" Kabuterimon agreed.

Kari said nothing. She was feeling a swarm of confusing emotions at the moment which blocked out the world around her. For some reason she had trusted this person without cause, but they repaid that feeling with violence. They had hurt her and betrayed her in a single act, and she wasn't even sure of why she felt that way.

Before the two digimon could react BurningGreymon continued forward toward the next infected digimon. The Gorillamon did its best to mount a defense, but it would be to no avail. The dragon digimon whipped the cannon Gorillamon had aimed at him away with a powerful blow from his tail before he brought the blaster straight up to the virus carrying digimons head and released his attack.

"PYRO BARRAGE"

Those were the last words Gorillamon heard as he burst into a cloud of digital bits.

"_Two down, one to go,"_ BurningGreymon thought to himself as he eyed the Ponchomon that was trying to escape by running towards the two partner digimon, Angewomon and Kabuterimon.

"ELECTRO SHOCKER"

"CELESTIAL ARROW"

Kabuterimon and Angewomon attacked the rampaging dragon digimon. Izzy was encouraging his partners attack while Kari said nothing; she just continued to stare at the stranger in black.

Before the attacks could hit their mark Takuya selected the stat opinions on his D-tector and raised his partners speed to its max which caused all the other stats to drop drastically. In a sudden burst of speed BurningGreymon rushed past the attacks which harmlessly passed through the empty air left behind. The dragon digimon's charge came to a stop right behind the fleeing Ponchomon, and in the next instant he reached out his hand and grabbed the infected digimon by the head and tightly closed his claws.

Those gathered could only watch as the claws pierced and crushed the Ponchomon's head, deleting it from existence, before the armored dragon digimon once again rushed off, back to its partner in black's side. None of them could muster the strength to say anything for a few seconds until Kari broke the silence.

"Why did you do such a horrible thing?" She screamed falling to her knees on Angewomon's shoulder.

Takuya could see the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks and felt a pang of sorrow fill his heart. But it was this quality that he loved the most about Kari. She could truly cry even for a person or digimon she had just met. Her heart was just that pure and it changed the people around her. And he had just become one of those people who had wounded that pure heart. The fact that he was doing it for their own good did little to ease the agony he felt from seeing her pain.

"You'll understand… It had to be done…" was the only response he gave in a dark tone.

With that he could no longer bare to see her cry so he took out his Runners Phone and entered the next location before hitting the send button. In a flash of light the two disappeared from atop the rock formation, leaving behind all the confused people and digimon.

"Where did they go?" Kabuterimon asked his partner.

"I don't know. I don't even know what just happened here," Izzy said as he stared blankly at the spot where the two attackers had once stood.

"We have to get the remaining digimon to the Digital World before they come back," Angewomon noted, hoping that she was wrong about the two returning.

"Right," Izzy sighed feeling a deep sense of defeat over what had just happened. He then motioned for them to continue along and keep an eye out for more trouble.

"What did he mean…?" Kari whispered through the tears which had stopped flowing at his mysterious words.

* * *

To be continued…


	4. No Rest for those Feigning Wicked

**Chapter 4**

**No Rest for those Feigning Wicked**

When Takuya open his eyes again he and Flamemon were standing on the roof of a lifeguard tower looking out over a clear blue ocean.

"So where are we now?" Flamemon asked enjoying the nice weather.

"Australia…" Takuya answered, with a tone of depression in his voice. He obviously wasn't over what had just happened with the Kari of this Zone. It was true that she wasn't the same one he was now dating, but she still had the same face, the same voice, and the same heart.

"It's nice that we're getting out of the house and traveling," Flamemon joked, hoping to cheer Takuya up.

"Haha… Great, I look so depressed that I'm trying to cheer myself up," Takuya laughed at the realization.

"Think of it as self medicating," Flamemon laughed back.

"Okay, now that I'm back, let's get going!" Takuya cheered while trying to shake Kari's crying face from his mind.

"Right!"

"Wait here for a second. I'll be right back," Takuya order as he jumped down from the roof of the lifeguard's tower.

Takuya landed on the sand below and headed for a row of towels hanging over a banister to dry. He grabbed five of them and snuck back to where Flamemon was waiting for him.

"Put these on," Takuya instructed the digimon as he tossed him the towels.

A minute later Flamemon jumped down to the beach, disguised by the towels wrapped around him. He might have looked weird completely wrapped up in towels, but at least it would allow him move around with drawing less attention or creating a panic.

"I feel kind of silly," Flamemon sighed, the mess of colorful towels sinking depressingly.

"It's better than you attracting unneeded attention to us with your appearance. Anyways, you don't stick out as much as someone wearing a long black coat at the beach," Takuya looked himself over. He had come prepared for winter and fall, so he was ill prepared for the change of season that came with the hemisphere change.

"Awww, whatever. You're just jealous that you're not red and furry," Flamemon smiled as the two of them set off to find Joe and Cody.

* * *

Out at sea Joe and Cody had just put an end to Anomalocarimon's rampage and were preparing to send him and the rest of the digimon the other Digidestined had herded together back to the Digital World.

"That was unpleasant, but at least it's almost over," Joe moaned as they approached the shore with the water digimon in tow.

"It'll be nice to get back to Japan, especially since it's Christmas tomorrow," Cody added from the railing of the boat were he watched the water digimon playing in the waves kicked up in the boats wake.

"A nice quiet day with our families sounds great right about now," Joe sighed, hoping that they'd seen the last of the action they were going to see that day.

Like many of the things in life it wouldn't go as expected, things were just heating up. Out in front of the boat a Shellmon, with a strange look of determination on its face, glided through the calm waters. Well it was, until three balls of what appeared to be condensed flame crashed down upon it from the sky and deleted it.

"What just happened!?" Cody cried out while he and Joe did their best to hold on to the railing of the boat, which was rocking violently thanks to the explosion that had claimed the infected Shellmon.

"I don't know! But I think one of the digimon out front was just killed!" Joe called over the sound of waves crashing against the side of the boat.

"Above!" One of the Australian Destined yelled out.

Hearing a direction called out to them the occupants of the boat looked up into the sky, and there they saw the source of the attack. Above them flying in the sky was a dragon digimon covered in red and white armor. It had one of the golden blasters attached to its wrist pointing towards the spot where the Shellmon had once been swimming as heat radiated from between the prongs.

"Where did that digimon come from?" Cody asked, surprised that a digimon like that was able to sneak up on them unnoticed.

"I don't know! But we should be more worried about the fact that he's attacking us!" Armadimon rejoined with a good point.

* * *

Knowing that the group containing the infected digimon was out at sea somewhere Takuya had to find a way to look for them. This meant he needed a boat, which meant he had to either get someone to loan him one or he had to steal one; he really didn't like the last option. Takuya walked along the docks checking each of the boats hoping to find a fast one he could use to cover a large distance, quickly.

"Aren't you hot, young man?" A voice came from behind him.

"Huh?" Was all Takuya could mutter as he turned around to see a old women who had to have been in her eighties looking at him with a puzzled look on her face.

"In that long black leather jacket I mean. You're not afraid of getting a little sun are you? That's what's wrong with children these days. They're more worried about being fashionable, then being practical," the granny began to ramble on.

"He..hehe…" Takuya laughed uncomfortably. The jacket really did make him stand out here, but it was now part of his persona so he couldn't remove it. Besides he was used to the heat.

"But I guess you have your reasons… at least you're a good kid," the woman spoke, shaking Takuya from his daydreaming.

"How can you tell?" Her sudden comment had come as a surprise.

"You have a feel about you that says you prefer to do the right thing even if it's difficult. Same goes for your friend there, it's very much the same," the woman replied looking him up and down.

"Thanks," Takuya said with a smile.

"You're welcome dear," she laughed before turning to leave.

When the old woman walked away Takuya noticed the keys hanging from her belt. It sounded crazy, but it was his only shot. He only hoped that they were the keys to a powerboat. He quickly ran ahead of the woman and stopped a few feet in front of her.

"I know we just met and this is going to sound crazy, but could I borrow your boat?" Takuya pleaded making sure to remove his hood so that he could give her his best puppy dog eyes.

The old woman stood there thinking for a good minute before saying anything. "Save the puppy dog eyes for the young ladies, kiddo."

"…" Takuya was speechless. He might not have been able to talk, but he could still hear; and what he heard was Flamemon laughing his head off.

"But since you put so much into asking such an outrageous question like that, the least I could do is loan it to you," the women said handing Takuya the keys and pointing towards a bright red speedboat with black racing strips running down the middle.

"Thanks…" The two partners muttered in disbelief.

"Don't worry about it. Just put it back once your done, and leave the keys under the seat," she said as she began to walk away.

"I have to know why you agreed to this," Takuya asked, still not over his shock.

"I'm doing it for four reasons. First, when you get to my age you realize that it's not owning things that makes life fun. Second, I did say you were a good kid, so I would have been lying if I felt I couldn't trust you. Third, while I was out there I saw some weird creatures like your friend back there," the old women stopped to point at Flamemon who seemed even more surprised than Takuya.

"How could you…" Takuya began to ask.

"And fourth, I doubt you'll be as rough on it as I am. I'm a real speed demon in the water," the old women laughed as she walked away, leaving the two of them in shock.

"What a weird old women," Flamemon stated, still in shock from being picked out as what he was by the old woman.

"Yeah… But I kind of hope I'm like that when I'm her age," Takuya laughed as he twirled the keys on his finger.

Five minutes later the two of them were out cruising around in the middle of the ocean looking for the infected digimon. Takuya was really enjoying piloting the boat which was surprisingly powerful and well maintained for something belonging to a woman in her eighties. Flamemon was on patrol duty which apparently included the job of yelling faster from time to time.

"Hey, I have a question. Why didn't you just have me digivolve into BurningGreymon and find them on my own?" Flamemon inquired as to Takuya's logic.

"For two reasons. We're in a densely populated area, so with all the people at the beach they would have spotted you in a second. And the other reason is that anything can happen, and if I'm not there and you got into some kind of trouble you couldn't digivolve of change your stats," Takuya explained to his new partner.

"You must really like to hear yourself talk if I asked a question like that," Flamemon laughed over the lengthy response the question required.

"Shut up…" Takuya moaned.

After a few more minutes of searching they found their target. A good distance ahead of them they could see large boat leading a large group of digimon, which hidden among them were two very toxic and very fake digimon.

"Okay, this time it is the Shellmon and the Seadramon," Takuya noted before giving Flamemon the order to digivolve.

"On it!" Flamemon cheered jumping straight into the air and digivolved into BurningGreymon.

With an increase in speed he was over the Shellmon in a matter of seconds and released his Pyro Barrage upon his unsuspecting target. When the three ball of flame struck Shellmon the exploded with a lot of extra force thank to Takuya raising BurningGreymons power stat. He was attempting to create some confusion so that BurningGreymon could take out the other infected digimon without anyone being able to retaliate. His little plan worked well because before anyone could formulate a plan BurningGreymon got off his second Pyro Barrage and wiped out the infected Seadramon as well.

With his job complete BurningGreymon returned to the boat that was already speeding away. The last sight Joe and Cody had of the mystery digimon was it flying over a red powerboat being driven by a hood figure in black.

"Should we follow them?" Gomamon asked getting ready to jump in the water.

"No, we get these digimon to safety first and hope that their done with us," Joe answered staring at the spot where the boat had disappeared into the distance.

* * *

Back at the dock Takuya had just finished tying up the boat and pulled out his Runners Phone and locked in the next location.

"That's three down, and three to go," Flamemon noted with a happy tone.

"Yes, but it's most likely going to be harder from here on out," Takuya sighed, holding his finger just above the enter button.

"Why? It's gone pretty smoothly so far," Flamemon tilled his head in Takuya's direction and scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Because by now the groups we've already visited will have finished, giving them time to report what happened to them to the other groups. And when they put the facts together they'll figure out these aren't isolated incidents and we're targeting them. Then the groups that we haven't attacked yet will know were coming," Takuya explained.

"That's just great. You don't think they'll try and send the digimon back early do you? You know, before we get there," Flamemon question his partner.

"Luckily, from what I've heard the remaining groups had some problems finding and bringing the digimon together, which should slow them down enough, even if they try to hurry," Takuya reassured the flame digimon.

"At least that's some good news. Do you think the next group will know?" Flamemon inquired.

"If we're quick about it, then we might get there before they receive the word," Takuya stated as he pressed the enter button and the two of them disappeared from the dock in a flash of light.

* * *

To be continued…


	5. The Word gets Out

**Chapter 5**

**The Word gets Out**

"This thing is really hard to aim," Takuya grumbled awkwardly as he stood high above the city of Paris.

"Really, I didn't notice," Flamemon's voice was dripping of sarcasm.

Takuya spared the digimon a glance to retort. "Hey, whatever, we're getting a pretty rare view of the sights, so don't complain."

"You're right. We're probably some of the few that have ever been up here. To the very point I mean," Flamemon chuckled as the two of them stared straight down the side of the Eiffel Tower from their position at the very tip holding onto the lightening rod at the top to keep from falling off.

"At least we'll be able to find the palace where the digimon are supposed to be hiding pretty easily from up here," Takuya pulled the Scanners down from his brow and over his eyes.

"There is that," Flamemon laughed as they looked out over the city trying to remember what the building in question actually looked like.

* * *

Outside of said palace Tai, TK, TK's grandfather and the French Destined, Catherine, were chasing down the rogue digimon along the canals of Paris.

"Look out above you MetalGreymon!" Tai warned his partner as the rogue digimon dropped another bomb from above.

"MagnaAngemon stop them," TK called out to his partner.

This fight continued for another few minutes before the three Digidestined were able to bring the fight to an end. The defeat digimon now sat on the ground before the Digidestined waiting to be sent back to the digital world; which TK was mere seconds away from doing. And yet there still was no sign of Takuya or BurningGreymon. The clock was ticking down fast.

TK lifted his D3 to the screen and opened the portal which promptly drew the digimon in and then closed right afterwards. It was over in an instant and the light was gone. As the three of them started congratulating each other on a job well done Tai's cell phone began to ring. He quickly picked it up and was greeted by Davis's sad voice.

"Tai, we had a…" Davis managed to say before Tai cut him off.

"Hold on Davis, I'm getting another call," Tai ordered before he switched to the next line.

"Tai, we had some trouble," were the first words out of Izzy's mouth.

"What happened!?" Tai panicked thinking that something bad might have happened to Kari.

"Wait, one second, everyone needs to hear this so I'll route all the calls together," Izzy explained before the line went quiet.

A few moments later all of the Digidestined were connected over their cell phones, well, all of them except from Sora and Yolei who couldn't be reached for some reason.

"So what's this all about Izzy?" Tai impatiently asked, having gotten tired of waiting for Izzy to tell him about the trouble they had run into.

"We were attacked, and three of the digimon we were escorting were killed," Izzy stated, a sense of muddied defeat and disappoint evident in his tone.

"WHAT!?" Came a collection of voices over the phone.

"You guys too?" Davis said into his end.

"What do you mean, you too?" Tai asked feeling a sense of worry spreading through him.

"We were about to send the digimon through the portal when this big dragon digimon dropped out of the sky and killed two of the digimon right in front of us," Davis replied, it was apparent by his tone that he wasn't over the anger of what had happened.

"Dragon digimon…" Izzy noted. "What did it look like?"

"Big with red and white armor, fiery feathered wings, gold blasters on its arms… Oh! And it was spewing fire from everywhere," Davis answered, finding the words distasteful in his mouth.

"It sounds like the same digimon that attacked us," Joe's voice now chimed in.

"Same here," Kari spoke up.

"We didn't see it. Anyone else see it?" Tai asked wanting all of the interrupting to stop.

"No," came Matt and Ken's voices.

"But could it have been the same digimon all three times?" Tai inquired of Izzy.

"It doesn't make any sense that we all could have seen the same digimon… unless the way they disappeared in a flash of light had something to do with it," Izzy remarked, his voice telling them he was considering some new angle.

"Did you just say, they, Izzy?" Mimi questioned the young genius.

"Yes, there was a human with a digivice there with the digimon," Izzy replied, her question shaking him from his thoughts.

"Wait, are you saying these digimon are partnered with Digidestined?" Tai exclaimed. He like the rest found it off putting to think that there was a fellow Destined running around killing innocent digimon.

"Was he dressed in a long black jacket with the hood pulled over his face?" Mimi once again asked.

"Yes," Izzy and Cody said at the same time.

"So it's the same digimon and the same Digidestined each time… within minutes of each other…" Izzy pondered aloud.

"We got all the digimon here back safely," TK announced to the group when it began to grow quiet.

"That's weird. You'd think they'd have at least made an appearance by…" Izzy was suddenly cut off by a scream of terror.

"Whose end was that on?" Izzy yelled into his phone.

"Ours," Tai answered as he spotted a Unimon flying at top speed towards them, a look of panic across its face as it darted down the canal.

"This can't be good. TK open the gate!" Tai turned to the boy and ordered.

* * *

From high above on the Eiffel Tower Takuya and Flamemon had noticed the battle taking place between the Digidestined and the rogue digimon.

"We've found them! Let's get over there and take those infected digimon out!" Flamemon cheered ready for another battle.

"No. The infected digimon aren't there," Takuya answered.

"What? …How can that be!" Flamemon answered in surprise. "Up until now they've always been with the group being sent back."

"Maybe they got lost… or worse have a way of contacting each other and now know they're being targeted when they're with the group," Takuya offered as an explanation.

"So where are the infected ones then?" Flamemon asked as he returned to searching the city from above.

"Good question…" Takuya mused as he began rotating his head, allowing the Scanners to process the whole city. Before the Scanners could even pick up on them he noticed several blurs moving quickly through the dark streets a few blocks away. With a small smile he pointed the moving shapes out to his partner.

"I'm guessing those are our targets," Flamemon rejoined.

"Yep, let's move out and take them down!" Takuya cheered as he digivolved Flamemon to BurningGreymon and jumping onto his shoulder before they took off over the city.

Within moments of liftoff the two of them landed on a bridge over the canal the infected digimon were using to make their way towards where the Digidestined were waiting. A few seconds later four digimon came flying around a bend and found themselves face to face with the waiting warriors.

"So it's two Flymon, a Harpymon, and a Unimon this time," BurningGreymon noted as the four digimon came to a halt.

"Take them out quick or with their numbers and the ability to fly if they'll separate and it'll be difficult to catch them," Takuya whispered to his partner from under his hood.

"Right!" BurningGreymon yelled lunging towards the group of infected digimon.

The moment he did the digimon did what Takuya had feared; they attempted to fly off into the sky in different directions.

"Aim your Pyro Barrage over their heads!" He called out to his partner who quickly responded.

"PYRO BARRAGE"

Balls of fire shot over the heads of the digimon driving them back down into the canal. Unfortunately one of the Flymon and the Unimon came down behind BurningGreymon while the Harpymon and other Flymon came down in front of him. The two behind him quickly made a break for it while the other two prepared to fight.

"Concentrate on the two in front of you, and then catch up with the other two. I'll make sure they don't get to the Digidestined and the gate!" Takuya yelled as he ran up a fleet of stairs and jumped onto a low rooftop.

"Understood partner!" BurningGreymon replied preparing for his two on one fight.

"I'm also upping your speed before I go! So your power's going to drop!" Takuya called back from somewhere behind the dragon digimon.

"Great... so now I have to play it smart," BurningGreymon whined. It definitely had to be a part of Takuya's younger personality that didn't like the idea of giving up strength and power even if he gained great speed from doing so.

Not wasting any time BurningGreymon used his increased speed to close the gap between him and the two digimon. The sudden move was enough of an edge to catch both digimon off guard. He quickly took aim with his blaster at point blank range and unleashed his attack.

"PYRO BARRAGE"

The attack struck the two digimon sending them back into the canal wall. While that one attack would normally have been enough to finish the two at full power, the speed increase Takuya had given him before he left, which without BurningGreymon would never have gotten that close in the first place, had lowered the attacks overall power. Hence, the digimon were able to survive the attack and return with one of their own.

"BROWN STINGER"

"WIND SEEKER"

The two attacks combined and rushed straight at the dragon digimon. Using his increased speed BurningGreymon managed to fly high enough into the air to dodge the attack and once again use his Pyro Barrage to attack. But this time Harpymon managed to launch a counter attack using her Wind Seeker. The fire and wind attack's collided in mid-air between the two digimon creating a large explosion that divided the two groups with a cloud of debris and dust.

On the infected digimons side Flymon and Harpymon were preparing their strongest attacks to launch a sneak attack through the cloud.

"BROWN STINGER"

"SILENT SYMPHONY"

The two digimon charged into the dark brown cloud of dust surrounded by the energy of their attacks, confident that they would be able to defeat BurningGreymon and make it to the Digital World. That was the idea before they heard BurningGreymon call out an attack of his own.

"WILDFIRE TSUNAMI"

The two infect waited for the attack to strike, but nothing came so they continued forward. Soon a soft red glow appeared ahead of them. A glow they mistook for the lights of the city. When they reached the source of the light and emerged from the cloud of smoke they came face to face with a rolling wall of flame that quickly engulfed the two leaving nothing behind.

"I'm finally done here! Now I've just gotta catch up with Takuya!" BurningGreymon thought out loud as he quickly turned around and took off along the canal, knowing that somewhere up ahead Takuya would have stopped, or at least slowed, the two escaping infected digimon.

* * *

Takuya had just left BurningGreymon to fight the two remaining infected while he chased down the fleeing ones. Since he had gotten the lay of the land from atop the Eiffel Tower he knew two things. The first being that the canal system made several turns along the way that would slow the digimon down. The second being that if he continued on a straight course he would reach a part of the canal they had to pass through. It was just a matter of getting there before they passed it. What he wasn't sure of was how he was going to stop them.

To reach the intersecting point he knew that he needed a straight path, which he wasn't going to find down on the streets of Paris. That was why he was running and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. This path offered him a direct line to the canal intersection as long as he didn't run into any taller buildings.

"Man, I bet this looks cool!" Takuya laughed as he jumped over another street divide to the roof across the alley.

While he ran, he thought about how easily he was keeping up with the different strenuous activities he was facing today. He then remembered how different it had been two months ago, when he was too injured to pull off something like this. Now that he had healed, something like this was no more difficult than a walk in the park with Kari thanks to all the training he and the twins had put into becoming Runners.

"There it is! And there they are!" Takuya noted aloud to himself. He could already see the virus carrying Unimon flying a good distance ahead of the Flymon who hadn't even made it around the bend yet. Up ahead he spotted Tai, TK and people he assumed were other Destined. They appeared to have noticed the Unimon when it had cried out and were now preparing a portal to send it to the Digital World.

"I still don't have a plan, so I guess I'll do what I always do. Wing it!" Takuya laughed as he reached the edge of the final roof and jumped as high, and as far as he could, aiming for the canal. Well, not the canal exactly, but the digimon that would be passing by it at the same time.

Takuya had timed his jump perfectly as he landed on the back of the speeding Unimon, who seemed incredible surprised by the fact that it had just attacked by a human. Both feet had landed squarely on the horse digimons spine and he used one hand wrapped tightly around the horn on its head to stabilize himself. Right after sticking the landing Takuya grabbed hold of the Unimon's right wing and bent it inwards, an action which quickly sent the flying digimon spiraling into the slanted walls of the canal. Unimon impacted the wall with enough force to dig into the side, while its momentum continued to carry it forward, painfully digging into the wall as it slid along it the whole way.

Spotting a bridge ahead Takuya added a new part to his plan, or finally had a plan that is. Putting both his legs down on the canal wall and pushing up on Unimons body he was able to keep the sliding digimon from slipping down the wall. When they were a few feet from the bridge Takuya leaned forward, exerting more force on Unimon until it slammed into the bridge, cracking the stone surrounding the impact point.

Using his own momentum Takuya jumped forward and grabbed hold of one of the supports under the bridge and flipped himself onto the railing of the bridge facing the shocked Digidestined. Behind him Unimon's unconscious body began to slowly slide down the side of the canal wall like a ragdoll, while the Flymon finally turned the bend and came into view.

* * *

"Did you just see that?" Agumon said awestruck by the scene that had just played out in front of them.

"Yeah," Patamon replied in a similar tone.

"Tai… Tai, what just happened?" Kari yelled into the phone when things became too quiet on his end.

"It looks like we missed some digimon and that guy in black just showed up and took one down without his partner," Tai answered still staring at the figure in black on the bridges railing, coat lightly swaying in the wind.

"Tai! We've got to stop him!" TK shouted in anger.

"Right…" Tai responded, but before they could make a move Unimon shook itself awake and turned its rage towards its attacker.

"How dare you!" It roared.

Takuya didn't even bother to turn and look at the enraged digimon. He just stood there as if waiting for something. Just a few inches above the water Unimon hovered, preparing an attack, but was pulled away from concentrating its power when the Flymon screamed out in horror.

Unimon turned just in time to see a wave of flame swallow up the Flymon before it came barreling down on it as well. Since Unimon had stopped to attack it no longer had the forward momentum it needed to escape the river of flames heading toward it. All the flying horse digimon could do was frantically kick its feet in a feeble attempt to get away, but in no time the flames swallowed it up as well, before the rolling fires continued on.

All Tai and the others could do was watch as the intense flames flowed down the canal like a river of raging red luminescent water. Above it all on the bridge stood the figure in black, his coat twisting about him in the updrafts caused by the heat, while embers floated by in the dark night air. He stood there like the devil himself looking out over the pits of hell.

When the flames dissipated the two digimon were gone and at the bend of the canal, floating just above the water, was the dragon digimon they had just heard about. The flames, which had been boosted greatly in intensity by Takuya maxing out BurningGreymons Power Stat when he had come around the bend behind the Flymon, had done their job and burned the infection from existence.

"Damn! He destroyed both of them!" Tai cursed their ability to do nothing to stop him.

Those on the phone had gone quiet after hearing the pain in his voice, since many of them knew the feeling. While Matt and Ken vowed to not let it happen to them.

"Why did you do that?" TK screamed at the figure in black as BurningGreymon landed beside him on the bridge.

Turning his head to the side Takuya looked at the enraged boy then to the phone in Tai's hands. He now knew that all the remaining Digidestined knew he was coming and with two more location to go it was going to make things much hard for him. Then a dark thought crossed his mind from out of nowhere. It was something he just couldn't pass up.

Takuya turned away from the Digidestined and pulled out his Runners Phone and set the next location, but before he hit the OK button he had something to say.

In his best evil and mysterious voice Takuya spoke to the Digidestined. "I can only assume that you're talking to the other Digidestined on that phone… so do me a favor and tell the blond one that I'll be seeing him soon."

Takuya then hit the OK button and he and BurningGreymon were gone in a flash of light. While on the other end of the phone Matt and Ken began to worry.

* * *

To be continued…


	6. Keeping Things from going South

**Chapter 6**

**Keeping Things from going South**

"Now where are we?" Flamemon inquired while trying to fight a laugh.

"Mexico," Takuya sighed at his temporary partner's actions along with his own.

"By the way, that line on the bridge was great," Flamemon couldn't hold it anymore and laughed.

"Thanks. It just kind of just came to me. I thought I might as well say something since they already knew that I would show up at some point," Takuya gave a guilty chuckle in response.

"But don't you think it was a little dark?" Flamemon asked.

"Yeah, I've probably been keeping up this act for too long," Takuya replied tiredly, the energy slowly being drained out of him by the day's course of events.

"So where do you think the digimon are?" Flamemon inquired getting his mind back on the mission at hand.

"According to what I've heard there's an ancient temple near here where the digimon are hiding," Takuya answered.

"Okay, then let's get going," Flamemon cheered.

"Just one thing before we go. Since these fights are most likely going to take place in the ruins, we have to be careful not to damage them," Takuya instructed his partner.

"How do we do that?" Flamemon eyed him with a look that told Takuya he thought what he had just asked was impossible.

"Don't know yet. But it does mean no digivolving, so we'll have to make do with you as Flamemon."

"Are you serious?"

"Very."

That was the end of the discussion as the two made their way towards the ruins through the thick forest.

* * *

Moments ago Matt had hung up the phone when Tai had told him that the figure in black had disappeared which meant that he was most likely on his way to their location. He, Ken, their partners, and the Gennai clone Jose hid in the brush surrounding the temple, just out of sight of the guards that had chased them away moments ago.

"We have to get in there now!" Matt demanded in a hushed voice.

"He's right! If the digimon are still in the temple when he arrives who knows what he'll do to get to them," Ken added worriedly. He was concerned about both the digimon and the ancient temple. He didn't want to see either of them destroyed.

"Okay, I'll go over there and distract the guards while the four of you sneak in," Jose instructed before he stood up and prepared to walk out of the forest.

"Do you think this'll work?" Wormon asked hoping for a positive answer.

"I really don't know Wormon… we can only hope," Ken replied, his attention on the guard's guns.

Before Jose could exit the woods and put his plan of distracting the guards into action a gruff voice sounded out of nowhere.

"HEY! YOU PEOPLE HIDING IN THE WOODS BY THE ENTRANCE! COME OUT!" The voice bellowed.

The Digidestined froze. Someone had spotted them and now all of the guards were coming their way.

"Damn, someone's seen us! We have to get out of here for now!" Matt ordered the group as they turned and ran away from the temple.

"How did they spot us? We were so well hidden?" Wormon shouted from on Kens shoulder. The sound of snapping of twigs and the breaking of branches echoed from behind them signifying that the guards were in pursuit.

"I don't know. They…" Ken tried to answer as he looked back towards the temple hoping that they had lost the guards, when he saw something that made him stop in midsentence. In the clearing, right in front of the temple entrance was a figure dressed in black, just calmly strolling into the temple. Then all of a sudden it all clicked for him.

"It was him!" Ken yelled to the others while pointing back towards the temple. "He was the one who yelled and told the guards where we were so that they would leave their posts and he could walk in unnoticed!"

Angered, Matt felt he had to vent. "Jerk! I'll kill him!" He cursed before ducking another branch.

"We have to lose these guys and get back to the temple as fast as we can," Ken noted.

"Okay, new plan. You four duck down in those bushes ahead while I lead the guards away from you," Jose explained.

A second later the two Digidestined and their respective partners jumped aside into the bushes while Jose kept running. Those in hiding did their best to remain as quiet as possible waiting for the sound of footsteps to get far enough away before they headed back towards the temple.

"When I find that guy I'll..." Matt swore unable to come up with what he would do.

"It's not like you to lose your cool Matt. You need to calm down," Gabumon said to his human partner. He was now worried that Matt wasn't thinking straight and he knew that would cause problems.

"How can I be calm!? All night that guy's been messing with us Digidestined and killing innocent digimon, and not a few minutes ago he sent a bunch of armed guards after us. This stops here!" Matt vowed as the temple entrance came into view once more.

* * *

"Don't you think that was kind of a mean thing to do?" Flamemon asked Takuya who was running beside him attempting to find the infected digimon before Matt and Ken returned.

"It got us in and more time to look around, didn't it? Anyways, it's nothing they can't handle. All of the Digidestined are pretty strong and resourceful after all," Takuya retorted still focusing on going over the path that lay ahead of them with the Scanners.

"That's true. It was also kind of funny," Flamemon added with a slight laugh.

"One of them is right up ahead, get ready," Takuya instructed Flamemon while he selected the Strength Stat from the menu on his D-tector and raised it to the max. "It's a powerful one so take it out the moment it rounds the corner."

"Right!" Flamemon cheered running ahead of Takuya.

The tall shadow slowly became more and more visible the closer the infected digimon got to the corner. Timing his move Flamemon jumped up and planted his right foot against the wall and pushed himself into the air, staying as close to the wall as he could. The move was perfectly timed; as the tall metal digimon came around the corner it didn't see Flamemon glide right behind its back and wrap his arms around him.

"Got you!" Flamemon smiled using his increased strength, thanks to the stat adjustment from Takuya, to bind the Andromon's arms. Flamemon slowly brought his hands together across Andromons upper body and grabbed hold of the top of the cyborg digimons chest plate. When he had a firm grip he pulled with all his might, ripping the metal cover off of the digimon's chest and bringing it up hard into his enemy's neck. The pain from the injuries managed to stun the infected digimon long enough for Flamemon to get in front of him and slam his now power infused fist, courtesy of a Power Stat boost from Takuya, directly into the exposed missiles in Andromons chest. A moment later the missiles began to spark and Flamemon quickly jumped back as Takuya came running up and slammed the torn chest plate back into position. A quick burst of heat from Flamemon welded it shut again, sealing the infected Andromons fate, even if the virus carrier didn't realize it yet.

"Did you really think that would kill me you litt…" Was all the Andromon was able to get out before the damaged missiles detonated inside it chest cavity and deleted the infected digimon from within, without causing any damage to the surrounding area.

"That's one down. Two more to go I think…" Takuya sighed and soon the two of them were off again.

* * *

Back at the entrance Matt and Ken had finally entered the temple. They were currently leaning against the stone walls out of breath and worn out.

"Need… to look... for… jerk…" Matt managed to say between gasps of air.

"He has a pretty good start on us already," Ken commented wiping the sweat from his face. Luckily for Ken he was still in good shape thanks to sports, while Matt's countless hours of playing guitar and writing music had left him somewhat lacking in the endurance department.

"Let's go get him," Matt announced after he had recovered enough to start running again. It was starting to become obvious that he didn't like the idea of losing to the figure in black, even to the point of losing sight of the original mission.

"We need to find the Digidestined that's hiding in here first," Ken explained, hoping that Matt was still listening to reason. "From what we've heard about that guy and his partner are strong, so with some more help our chances of victory will improve."

Matt sighed before he turned to Ken and responded. "You're right, Ken."

"Okay. According to her last e-mail she should be that way," Ken said pointing to a left turn just up ahead.

The two humans and digimon made their way down the tunnel hoping that they could find the Mexican Digidestined before the figure in black found any digimon.

* * *

Takuya and Flamemon had just found the second of the three digimon and were currently trying to catch the speedy little bird.

"Stupid Kiwimon!" Flamemon yelled as he chased the bird digimon.

"All it does is run," Takuya moaned as it turned another bend, hoping to lose its pursuers.

"Loser bird! No wonder you went extinct!" Flamemon continued to yell at the Kiwimon.

"Dodo," Takuya said to his partner.

"What!? What did I do?" Flamemon stared at Takuya with a shocked and hurt look on his face.

"Not you. The bird," Takuya shot back.

"You hear that you Dodo!" Flamemon teased the Kiwimon.

"Not him, the one that went extinct," Takuya exhaled a big breath.

"Right… What?" Flamemon asked confused.

"It was the Dodo that went extinct, not the Kiwi," Takuya corrected the Warrior of Flame.

"Oh!"

The two of them turned another bend and found the digimon lying on the ground with a large crack in its helmet. Ahead of it there was also a large crack in the wall, which it had apparently run headlong into, knocking itself unconscious.

"The temple got damaged, Takuya," Flamemon noted while looking at the large crack and trying not to laugh.

"It's pretty deep into the temple and there's nothing of importance carved into the wall, so this should be okay. Besides it's not a very big crack," Takuya did the best he could to justify the damage.

"This is just sad. I actually feel sorry for it now," Flamemon sighed shaking his head from side to side in disappointment, while looking down at the still form of Kiwimon crumpled up on the floor.

"It doesn't feel right, but we need to hurry, so~… I guess you should…" Takuya began to say.

"It's defenseless, so why don't you do it?" Flamemon asked.

"Because you'd make it quick. And you're the digimon here!" Takuya returned with.

"Don't give me that! You just don't want to do it this way either," Flamemon retorted.

The two of them began arguing back and forth as to which one of them had to knock off the knocked out bird digimon. They didn't look like they would reach an agreement anytime soon. That would remain true until the Kiwimon suddenly burst into a cloud of data.

"What just happened…!?" Flamemon said staring at the spot where the Kiwimon had been laying a moment ago.

"I guess it hurt itself more than we thought when it hit that wall," Takuya replied, staring at the same spot.

"That's really just too pathetic…" Flamemon sighed, feeling embarrassed for the departed infect digimon.

"Yeah… I guess we go and get the last one now," Takuya added still unable to decide how he felt about how the fight with Kiwimon, which had never truly begun, had ended.

* * *

Matt and Ken had almost reached the young girl who had become trapped in the temple while trying to herd the digimon. They still hadn't run into any digimon or the figure in black which worried them. They feared that they were too late, that the Digidestined in black had already wiped them all out.

"Where's the Mexican Digidestined and the digimon that are supposed to be in this temple?" Gabumon inquired as they continued along one of the stone corridors.

"They should be around here somewhere," Ken answered while looking around the large room they had just entered.

"Hola!" Came the voice of a young girl.

The Digidestined turned when they heard the voice and were greeted by a young girl and a Gottsumon stepping out of the shadows between two very large pillars.

"Hello! I'm assuming you're the Mexican Digidestined we've been looking for," Ken greeted the young girl and her partner.

"Yes, my name is Rosa and this is my partner Gottsumon," Rosa introduced herself without ever taking her eyes off of Ken.

"I'm Ken and this is my partner Wormon. Over there is Matt and his partner Gabumon," Ken told the young Rosa.

"It's nice to meet you," Rosa smiled getting closer to Ken.

"I hate to interrupt, but why were you hiding back there?" Matt asked pointing towards the corner she had stepped out from.

"We were hiding from that guy in black and the red digimon," Rosa answered finally breaking her lock on Ken to look at Matt.

"What!?" The four replied.

"There was this scary guy in black who came after us," Rosa said unsure of why they were giving her such strange looks.

"Are you hurt? What happened?" Ken asked concerned about the girl.

"We were trying to gather up the digimon in the temple when we spotted this Andromon walking the halls when it was attacked by those two. After a short fight they destroyed the Andromon and then they spotted us. The next thing we knew they took off after the Kiwimon that was in our group and then we hid here," Rosa explained feeling somewhat down that she wasn't able to stop the figure in black.

"Which way did they go?" Matt demanded.

"I don't remember it was a while ago and I just kept running until I got here," Rosa responded hiding behind Ken.

"Matt, we need to find him before he finds another digimon," Ken announced a serious look in his eyes.

"Right!" Matt replied with a determined nod.

In the shadows above them a set of eight glowing red eyes snapped open and affixed themselves on the children below.

* * *

"The last one would just have to be him, wouldn't it?" Flamemon yelled as he kicked off a wall and jumped to a stone rafter above his target.

"It is making this difficult isn't it?" Takuya answered dodging a strange cloud of gas as it rolled down the corridor.

"Hey! You're not the one who has to touch it!" Flamemon retorted, jumping the same gas cloud as Takuya.

"And you won't melt instantly if it gets on you!" Takuya shot back putting himself behind the infected digimon.

"Good point! I just freaking hate Raremons!" Flamemon complained, preparing to dodge the sludge ball that the living toxic muck was creating in its mouth.

Noticing the coming attack Takuya relayed an important command to Flamemon. "Don't dodge that attack! Burn it up or it'll melt a part of the temple!"

"Ohh! Right!" Flamemon responded before forming a ball of fire in his hand.

"FLAME TOSS" Flamemon yelled releasing the ball of flame he had gathered in the palm of his hand.

"ACID SLUDGE" Raremon roared spewing a clump of oozing acid straight towards Flamemon.

The two attacks collided in midair turning into a raging ball of flame and then bursting into data fragments.

Taking advantage of the Raremons surprise at having its attack canceled out Flamemon charged the living pile of sludge and delivered a powerful punch straight to its head, making sure to surround his fist with flames to protect himself from the creatures acidic body. As the Raremon reeled from the attack Flamemon followed it up with another punch to the head sending the larger digimon sliding backwards.

"MONKEY BALL"

Flamemon yelled his body bursting into flames as he charged the dazed Raremon. Once he reached the slime pile he rammed his shoulder and elbow into exposed belly of the digimon knocking it back again this time with enough force to lift it off the ground completely. Flamemon took this opportunity to land a final strike and end the fight.

"NOBLE HEART" "FLAME TAIL"

Flamemon called out and combined the two attacks before launching himself off of the ground and sending himself into a spinning saw blade of fire and crashing straight into Raremon. A second after impact Flamemon emerged from the other side of the muck digimon, flames pouring out of the gaping hole left in the middle of the larger digimon, and landed on the temple floor a few feet from the Raremon who was quickly engulfed in flames and burst into a cloud of digital bits.

"Looks like that's all of them," Takuya noted finally finding an opportunity to relax now that he didn't have to avoid sludge and gas attacks in the narrow corridor.

"Yeah… Do you think my hands smell?" Flamemon asked holding his hands up to Takuya's nose hoping to get his opinion.

"Okay, way to close! And yes, they do," Takuya answered taking a step back to get away from the smell.

"Great…" Flamemon sighed, hanging his head in disappointment.

Their mission complete Takuya took out his phone and prepare to make the jump to the final battle ground, but before he could hit the enter button a strange noise caught his attention.

"Did you hear that?" Takuya asked flipping his Runners Phone shut and looking down one of the stone corridors.

"What was it?" Flamemon inquired looking down the same hallway as Takuya.

"Trouble…" Takuya stated before running off down the corridor towards the noise.

* * *

"How did we let this Dokugumon get the drop on us!?" Matt yelled as he watched the big black spider digimon continue to wrap up the partner digimon in its webbing.

"We were too focused on finding the guy in black and we let our guard down around the rogue digimon," Ken answered trying to figure out a way to help his partner.

"We have to do something! They can't digivolve as long as their tangled up in that mess!" Rosa cried as she helplessly watched her Gottsumon struggle to free itself.

Above the captured group, standing on a balcony overlooking the large room were Takuya and Flamemon. They had arrived a few seconds ago and were taking in the current situation the Digidestined were having with Dokugumon.

"They seem to be having some trouble down there," Flamemon stated, seemingly unamused.

"We need to do something about this," Takuya replied as he watched the events unfold below them.

"Why!? They should be able to get out of this just fine. They've done it before in the other Zone," Flamemon remarked.

"That's the problem. The moment we made our first appearance things began to change. This situation is proof of that. They became distracted worrying about us and were easily captured by a normal digimon," Takuya explained.

"So this didn't happen in the other world?" Flamemon questioned now increasingly concerned about those in trouble below.

"No… At least I don't remember it from the stories I heard. Although the real problem is that things will only continue to change from here on out," Takuya added. "I'm not sure how much longer what I know will still be valid."

"Okay, so what should I do?" Flamemon asked ready for his orders.

"Can you burn up the web with some of your fireballs to set them free?" Takuya requested of his digital persona.

"Easy!" Flamemon replied as he began to form several small fireballs in the palm of his hand.

"FLAME TOSS"

Flamemon released his attack and hit the webbing that was binding the three partner digimon. The webs instantly caught fire and burned away in a flash, dropping the three trapped digimon to the floor and scaring Dokugumon into submission.

"Where did that attack come from?" Matt called out as he rushed to help Gabumon to his feet.

Ken whirled around just in time to spot a shadowy figure walk away from the balcony above them and into a dark hallway.

"It couldn't have been…" Ken whispered before running to help his partner recover.

Takuya had decided to leave the rest of the fight up to the Digidestined since they shouldn't have any more problems from that point on. It was more important that he get to the final location before they started sending digimon back to the Digital World. He once again flipped open his Runners Phone, selected the location and hit the OK button. In a bright flash they were gone, the only sign they had ever been there being a large crack in one of the walls deep within the temple.

* * *

To be continued…


	7. A Cold Blooded Finish

**Chapter 7**

**A Cold Blooded Finish**

The moment the bright light faded a deep chill surrounded the two. The sudden drop in temperature and the pale sunlight reflecting off the white snow all around them numbed their senses momentarily as they tried to adjust.

"Damn, it's cold," Takuya shivered pulling his jacket tighter around his body.

"What are you complaining about? At least you have clothes," Flamemon moaned as he rubbed his arms for warmth.

"You're joking, right?" Takuya looked at the red skinned digimon with surprise.

"No! I'm freezing!" Flamemon retorted.

"You're the legendary warrior of flame…" Takuya noted with a hint of shock in his voice.

"Your point!" Flamemon agitatedly rejoined.

"Just concentrate on your inner fire and you'll warm right up," Takuya explained still unable to believe that he had to tell Flamemon these things. Maybe certain knowledge about ones power didn't just come with instinct.

Taking a moment to center himself Flamemon began to glow a deep red, which quickly melted the snow around him before fading away.

"Wow! I feel all toasty now!" Flamemon cheered, happy to finally be warm again.

"…" Takuya just couldn't come up with the words.

"Just forget that ever happened… So where are we now?" Flamemon quickly changed the subject hoping to end the embarrassing moment.

"Russia. So we need to look for Sora and Yolei," Takuya answered letting go of the issue, mainly because dwelling on it reminded him that Flamemon only had his young mind to work with, which meant he hadn't known the same thing when he was that age.

The two prepared to take off in search of the infected digimon and the Digidestined when they heard a frustrated yell come from the street below them.

"How are we supposed to work together if we can't even communicate?" The voice familiar to Takuya cried.

Takuya and Flamemon just looked at each other and then made their way to the edge of the roof to find the source of the outburst. Down in the street right below them was the two Digidestined they were about to go look for.

"Well, that was easy… now all we have to do is find those infected fake digimon," Flamemon laughed as he watched Yolei's little freak-out.

"Yeah, but I can't tell which ones are infected," Takuya replied looking up into the sky through his Scanners at all the Flymon zooming around in the sky above. He would see a red target circle highlight one, but when it quickly darted behind a swarm the target would get lost. They were too great in number and moving too fast and chaotically for the experimental tech to accurately lock onto.

"You're right about that. There is just too many of them clumped together to find the infected ones," Flamemon added looking into the same sky.

"What we need to do is break them up into smaller groups so we can find them," Takuya thought out loud.

"I could always fly up there and scare them so that they scatter and then we can pick them off," Flamemon offered.

"That won't work. If we do that we'll have the Digidestined on us in no time, which will make it impossible to track them all down before they can send them back," Takuya explained before he returned to listening to the girl's conversation below.

"So do you have a plan then?" Flamemon asked.

"Not yet…" Takuya began to trail off when he caught an interesting part of the conversation below.

"I wonder if Izzy was calling us about this little situation here?" Yolei thought out loud.

"I have no idea what he wanted, but it probably wasn't about this," Sora noted in return.

"I just wish we could call someone and get some help with translating," Yolei rejoined.

"That would make things easier, but thanks to that huge snow storm we can't get in contact with anyone," Sora added with a sigh. This last line made a smile spread across Takuya's face.

"I know that look. It's the, I've-got-a-plan, look," Flamemon smiled.

"Yeah… All I need to do now is look up a bit of Russian on my Runners Phone," Takuya smiled making his way towards the fire escape on the other side of the building. "Good thing Lady Ophanimon installed a translation program on our phone."

"How will that help us?" Flamemon inquired while they climbed down the metal ladders.

"Due to the snow storm they haven't heard about us or what we're doing. All we need to do is help them knock the digimon from the sky and you take out the infect once they're on the ground," Takuya explained setting his foot on the ground and releasing the ladder.

"So we're just going to go over there and act like we're one of them and hope they don't see me swooping down during the fight to eliminate the infected digimon?" Flamemon recapped in a doubtful voice.

"You won't have to swoop down if they don't think you can fly," Takuya retorted leaning up against the corner so he could spy on the Digidestined.

"So I just stay as Agunimon the whole time and act as if that's as high as I can go?" Flamemon said finally understanding the plan.

"That's the plan. Time to digivolve," Takuya replied with a smile.

* * *

"Okay, we need some way to communicate. Can you think of anything Sora?" Yolei hoped Sora had some kind of idea.

"No, I only know two Russian words and they're the names of food," Sora laughed.

"Great, you can be in charge of ordering lunch when we're done. But right now we need to tell them that we need to bring down those digimon so we can send them back to the Digital World," Yolei sighed in defeat.

"Сбейте те digimon, таким образом мы можем послать им назад цифровому миру," came a string of Russian words from a voice from a side alley.

Yolei and Sora turned to where the voice had come from just in time to see an older boy covered from head to toe in a dark black jacket with the hood up covering his face emerge for an adjoining alley. Behind him was a large red and gold armored humanoid digimon with golden blond hair.

Whatever he had said to the Russian Digidestined they must have understood since they seemed to be ready to move out now.

"Hello… who are you?" Yolei greeted the two, not taking her eyes off the digimon in back.

"Sorry I'm late. The names Yukio," Takuya lied, while Agunimon tried not to laugh at the fake name Takuya had chosen. "And this is my partner, Agunimon."

"It's good to have you here Yukio, especially if you can speak Japanese and Russian," Sora welcomed the two.

"Translating won't be a problem," Takuya answered with a smile as he gripped the phone in his pocket, ready to punch in another phrase or sentence to be translated.

A few minutes later the Digidestined were ready to go, now that they had been able to discuss the plan thanks to Takuya, or Yukio as he was right now, translating for them.

"Okay, let's move out!" Yolei cheered lifting herself onto Halsemon's back.

"Since me and Agunimon here can't fly, we'll keep an eye out down here on the ground," Takuya suggested. So far everything about his plan was falling into place quite nicely.

"Right! Just be careful Yukio!" Yolei yelled back as the pair took off.

Sora said nothing as her and Garudamon took off, but she did turn around to look at the two. Somehow they made her feel uneasy. It wasn't a feeling of danger, but she did feel that something was wrong.

A few seconds later the first groups of Flymon began to fall out of the sky where Agunimon was waiting for them. In the very first group they managed to find one of the infected and with Takuya watching the sky to make sure no one was watching Agunimon deleted it with a quick attack. This method continued until all of the Flymon were taken out of the sky and the infected ones in the area were eliminated.

"Now that we're done it's time to get something to eat," Yolei celebrated as her stomach rumbled.

"Thanks again, Yukio. We couldn't have done it without you," Sora thanked Takuya.

"No problem," Takuya replied while secretly looking for an opportunity to sneak away. He knew that soon someone would make contact with the Digidestined here and tell them everything. It would most likely be from the Gennai clone when he arrived. He wanted to be on his way to the final Russian location, Siberia, before that happened. When the girls started talking it up with the Russian Digidestined, or what you could call talking when neither side understood the other, Takuya slipped away down an alley and initiated another jump.

"Hey Yukio, come here and translate for…" Yolei stopped when she turned around and couldn't find the boy in black. "He's gone!?"

"I wonder where he went?" Sora thought out loud, her uneasy feeling growing stronger.

"Sorry I'm late, that storm really slowed me down," came a new voice from behind the group.

This time they were greeted by a tired looking copy of Gennai.

"The names Ilya and I have some important information for you," he announced after he caught his breath.

"What's so important that we can't grab some lunch first?" Yolei moaned.

"Did everything work out okay here? Were there any problems?" Ilay asked hoping for the best.

"Everything here went fine. Why?" Yolei asked sensing the same uneasy feeling Sora had been feeling for a while.

"Well, all over the world this mysterious digimon and Digidestined have been attacking and destroying the digimon each group was trying to return to the Digital World," Ilay explained.

"That's horrible!?" Yolei replied. That was some terrible news after such great success on their end.

"Yes it is. So I came here to warn you about this figure in black," Ilay said as he felt a sense of relief spread thought out him that things hadn't ended the same way here as they had everywhere else.

"…He wasn't wearing a long black coat with a hood and had a digimon in red armor with him did he?" Sora asked a sinking feeling growing in her stomach. She wasn't the only one that felt this way, Yolei and the digimon were feeling it too.

"Yes…" Ilay answered, his happy feeling quickly fading.

"That sounds like Yukio…" Yolei said with an uneasy laugh not wanting to believe that they had been tricked so easily.

"Who?" Ilay asked.

After that the group explained what had transpired before Ilay had arrived, including all about the boy in black they had met and worked with.

* * *

Takuya and Agunimon had thought that the last time they teleport was to a cold place, but Siberia was on a whole different level. The frozen winds whipped all around them kicking up a blinding snow. Takuya pulled his jacket tighter and did his best to block out the cold feeling that was filling his mind; while Agunimon stood there comfortably.

"All we have to do now is find the infected digimon here and I can finally go see my Kari and try to put this whole incident behind me," Takuya moaned just wanting the job to finally be over.

"Right!" Agunimon cheered before he was surrounded by whirling blue fractal code and reemerged as BurningGreymon.

Soon the two were searching the area for last virus infused digimon. Takuya searched the ground while BurningGreymon got an aerial view.

"Damn, I'm going to freeze to death before we find this one," Takuya cursed to himself while rubbing his arms to get the feeling back in them. His special Runners jacket afforded him a bit more protection from the elements than a normal light coat would, but he'd already been searching for fifteen minutes now and his temperature was dropping with every gust of frozen wind that found its way beneath the fabric.

"Yes… My… Lord…" Those few words suddenly reached Takuya's ears. They came from somewhere in the forest through all of the snow and wind. Stopping to listen Takuya was able to figure out in which direction the voice had come from. The voice appeared to be talking to someone out in this frozen tundra.

Takuya continued to get closer and closer to the voice until he came to a clearing in the forest. Peering through the thick snow kicked up by the arctic winds he was able to make out a monstrous shape. It was a form that he remembered all too well; it was definitely an IceDevimon. As realization dawned on him he quickly pressed his back against a large tree so that he could listen in on the conversation between the ice digimon and the unseen voice.

"I don't know how they knew about the virus or the digimon, Master. I can promise you that I won't fail to reach the Digital World, Master," IceDevimon hissed while kneeling in the snow.

"I should hope so. For your sake that is you fool," the distorted voice responded from nowhere.

"Why does that voice sound familiar?" Takuya whispered to himself, at that moment an uneasy feeling began to grow in the back of his mind.

"But Master didn't you send Lord Deamon on his own mission to the human world. Can't he come here and aid me," IceDevimon did its best not to sound like it was begging or scared.

"No fool! He has his purpose and you have yours, so don't you dare fail me!" The voice boomed before it disappeared completely.

"It's because she betrayed us that things are like this," Icedevimon cursed stomping its feet and slashing its arms about in anger.

"Why things are…?" Takuya repeated to himself as he thought over what he had just heard.

Having heard enough Takuya pulled out his D-tector and called BurningGreymon, who came crashing down on top of IceDevimon a few seconds later.

"So we've found the last one," BurningGreymon growled happily, ready to end the fight and mission there and now.

Not giving his enemy any time to recover from the shock of the surprise attack BurningGreymon followed up with a powerful stomp onto IceDevimons head, pinning it against the ground. Using the Strength Stat boost Takuya had provided when he arrived BurningGreymon was easily able to hold the injured digimon in place while he aimed both his blasters at his enemy's vitals.

"Hold on BurningGreymon! I have some questions I need to ask our coldblooded friend here," Takuya stopped his partner from carrying the fight any further.

"Do you really think I'll talk human?" IceDevimon roared in anger. Angry at the fact that like all of the others it was about to end here, being looked down on by this pathetic human before him.

Ignoring the evil digimons blustering Takuya asked his questions. "Who were you talking to?"

"The Master scares me more than you do, boy."

"Who is your Master?" He kept the questions coming.

"Hahaha," IceDevimon laughed. It was becoming apparent that he wasn't going to tell him anything about this Master.

"Who was the one that betrayed you?" Takuya smiled knowing he could play off of IceDevimons need to vent his anger.

"She betrayed us! She was one of us and she couldn't handle the cost!" IceDevimon thrashed about from beneath BurningGreymon's foot.

"Who did?" Takuya asked again, hoping to at least get something useful.

"It was that traitor…rawwwwhhhh!" IceDevimon suddenly screamed out in pain. The sudden change in the evil digimons state shocked BurningGreymon who became distracted enough for Icedevimon to free himself. BurningGreymon stumbled backwards, but quickly regained his footing and prepared to reengage the enemy, but something about the way IceDevimon was acting kept him at bay.

The ice digimon was now on its knees flapping his arms about painfully and screaming while repeatedly ramming its head into the ground.

"What's wrong with him!?" BurningGreymon cried as he watched IceDevimon's strange actions.

"I have no idea…" Takuya replied feeling sorry for the painful ending his enemy was now facing.

With a bone breaking jerk of his body Icedevimon arched backwards and turned his head towards the dark sky. With its arms outstretched, it released a final pain filled scream, louder then all of the others, into the night, before it fell over in the snow and stopped moving. When it was all over, all that was left was the sound of the raging winds and the two partners staring at the corpse of IceDevimon.

"What just happened?" BurningGreymon asked as the two approached the slowly dissolving body of their former enemy.

"I think something tore apart his data… from the inside…" Takuya responded with a bit of pity for the vile digimon. It might have been an enemy, but having one's body and mind broken from the inside out was a horrid way to go. "My guess would be that someone was keeping tabs on IceDevimon and they didn't like that he was about to talk."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that things just got a whole lot more complicated," BurningGreymon stated looking down at his human counterpart standing next to him in the snow.

"Whoever this Master is, they are way too dangerous for the Digidestined to face alone. Which means were staying until this is done," Takuya sighed as he attempted to forget about his plans of seeing Kari anytime soon.

"Hey! Doesn't the fact that they knew IceDevimon was going to talk mean they were watching?" BurningGreymon asked turning to Takuya for an answer.

"It might…" Takuya stopped in midsentence when he felt a presence behind them. It was actually a number of presences, quite a lot of them in fact.

"Damn, I got distracted," he whispered to himself as he turned around to face those behind him.

* * *

**To be continued…**

So that's it for the introduction chapters and now the main part of the story begins. Takuya and his Runner allies battle against the unknown evil Master is now underway.


	8. Another Contact

**Chapter 8**

**Another Contact**

"Hey, you two! Are you ready to get back to Japan?" Tai called out to the two girls standing in the snow.

"Sure, Tai," Sora sighed. She appeared to be feeling quite down about something.

A few minutes ago Tai and the rest of the Digidestined, minus Kari and Izzy, had arrived on Imperialdramon to pick up the girls. The two's attitudes weren't strange considering the night all of them had just had. In truth they were all feeling a mixture of tiredness, anger, and defeat.

"Are you okay, Sora?" Tai asked, concerned about her well being after hearing her depressed sigh.

"We couldn't do anything. He just pretended to help us and we fell for it," Yolei answered for Sora.

"What!?" Tai leaned to the side so he could see Yolei a few feet away.

Sora began to retell the events that had led up to their meeting with the figure in black, working with him, and finding out who he really was far too late.

"So that jerks name is Yukio," Davis growled slamming his fist into his palm.

"That's probably not his real name. He probably just picked it as a kind of joke," Ken mentioned to Davis, nervous about how the other boy would take his remark.

"What do you mean?" Davis looked at Ken confused by his claim.

"Yukio, means snow. And since it's all around us he probably…" Ken began to explain before a scream pierced the quiet night.

"RRAAWWWWHHHHHH"

"What was that!?" Matt inquired after the sound had subsided along with the shock of its sudden intrusion.

"I don't know, but it came from that direction," Tai concluded as he ran off in the same direction with the others close behind.

The Digidestined ran through the forest, dodging low hanging snow covered branches, unable to see more than five feet in front of them due to the snowfall. However, despite the blinding conditions they knew where they were going. The terrible scream in the dead of night was their guide. Suddenly the group burst through the edge of the forest out into a large clearing encircled by trees.

Tai stared ahead at the two blurry shapes hidden in the snow; one small and the other large. Before he could approach the snow lightened and the sky became clear. There in the center of the clearing was the figure in black with his fire dragon digimon. The two of them stood there, looking down at the large white arm of some digimon that had mostly dissolved away. Another of the two's victims perhaps?

"It's him…" Tai whispered, unable to decide if he should approach the two or stay where he was. Behind him the other Digidestined began to exit the woods and stopped behind their leader.

"Tai, what's wrong…?" Davis asked before he too fell silent.

The group had all finally realized who stood before them in the clearing and from the looks of it the figure in black had just become aware of their presence as well. They could tell that the figure was looking at them now even though his eyes were buried in the shadows of his hood.

"YOU!" Tai yelled taking a few steps toward Takuya after making up his mind to confront the figure that had plagued their night. Takuya's only response was to raise his right hand and hold it out in a stopping motion, warning Tai to remain where he was. "Do you have any idea what you've done?" Tai asked, actually stopping when he was told to.

"Yes, more than you know," Takuya answered in a soft voice.

"What did…?" Tai started too asked before Takuya cut him off.

Pulling out his cell phone and highlighting his next location on the jump select Takuya had one last thing to say to the Digidestined. "You need to be careful during the next few days."

"What!?" Tai asked stupefied by what the figure in black had just said.

"Dangers you're not ready to face will soon appear," Takuya added before he hit the enter button and was gone in a flash of light.

"What the hell is going on!?" Tai yelled into the empty sky, somehow feeling that he had to trust those words of warning even if he couldn't trust the one they had come from.

* * *

A few hours later the Digidestined were back home, hopefully getting some well deserved rest, but in the Digital World things were only getting started. Takuya had returned to Azulongmon and begun to share what he had learned about the unknown power and enemy; and what was most likely to come in the near future.

"That is most unfortunate. I had hoped that this would all be over after tonight and that the Digidestined could handle the rest," Azulongmon sighed contemplating the fate both worlds now faced.

"One of the Demon Lords is a tough enough opponent, but someone that can command one is even worse. This isn't something the Digidestined can deal with yet," Takuya explained while he continued to lean against the rock formation and stare at the ground.

"You seem to be better versed in this situation. What do you suggest young one?" The digital ruler asked having exhausted his own options.

"The first thing is that I'm not leaving until this is taken care of. Second, I've contacted my Zone about this, so hopefully some back-up will arrive sometime in the near future. And third, we need to find this traitor IceDevimon spoke of. They'll most likely have many of the answers we need," Takuya offered Azulongmon.

"Once Gennai returns here you'll get some assistance in your endeavor," Azulongmon assured Takuya.

"That'll help, but actually getting help from capable fighters would be better. I was really hoping that when IceDevimon died it would release the locks preventing travel to the human world from the Digital World… but that doesn't seem to have been the case," Takuya sighed sinking slightly down the stony surface at his back.

"Yes, and now the Digidestined no longer have the support of Gennai in their world," Azulongmon's voice echoed in the sky above.

"We'll just have to…" Takuya began to comment before a strange ringtone sounded from his phone.

"What the…!?" Takuya exclaimed, pulling out his phone and checking the caller ID. Strangely, the display was just a long series of zeros in the place of the incoming number and name of the caller. Flipping the phone open the call connected and a strange noise leaked out of the earpiece. Takuya continued to listen intently to it before there was a small ding sound and the call cut off.

"Who was it?" Flamemon questioned unable to contain his curiosity any longer.

"I'm not sure... But whoever they were, they were skilled enough to access my Runners Phone and even upload to it," Takuya noted as he showed his partner the screen which now displayed a strange map with a blinking red dot a good distance away.

"So what do we do?" Flamemon inquired. "It could be a trap."

"Yeah, it could be, but at least we'll learn something about what's happening here. So get ready to leave because we're going," Takuya answered with a confident smile.

* * *

"So why didn't we just teleport directly to the spot?" Flamemon asked looking around the clearing Takuya had selected.

"If this is a trap, I'd at least like to have a look around before we walk into it," Takuya answered making his way towards the edge of the forest so he could scope out the location designated on his phones map.

After a few minutes of trekking through the woods the two partners reached a small cliff side overlooking the coordinates they had received. The landscape below them looked like a war zone. Large sections of earth and rock had been blow apart or ripped up from the ground and left pointing skyward like newly formed mountains. Fires still raged across the fields, billowing dark black smoke into the darkening skies. Trees had been splintered like toothpicks and set ablaze, adding to the ash being released by the blacken earth.

"What the hell happened here!?" Flamemon asked staring at the surrounding area, stupefied by the pure level of destruction laid out before him.

"I think our contact might have run into some trouble," Takuya released an anxious breath as he looked for any sign of movement down below.

Takuya continued to scan the shattered earth for any sign of life until he noticed some movement at the far end of the carved up canyon. The figure seemed very familiar; but the coloring was different from the one he had seen two months ago. The digimon that was leaning against a giant up heaved rock, barely clinging to life, was none other than BlackWargreymon. The injured mega digimon stared toward something hidden behind another rock formation a good distance ahead of it with a look of anger and fear. This was the look one opponent gives the other who's about to strike them down.

"We need to save him!" Takuya announced before he jumped off the edge and began to slide down the side of the steep incline.

"What!? Isn't he one of the enemies in this world?" Flamemon asked as he followed Takuya downward.

"Doesn't matter! He needs help and we're going to be the ones to give it to him!" Takuya yelled back over the sound of falling rocks and grinding dirt under his feet.

"So what's the plan?" Flamemon inquired unsure of how they were going to approach this one.

"All you have to do is…" Takuya began to explain.

* * *

BlackWargreymon stared at the digimon before him. It was a cyborg animal digimon in the shape of a wolf. To any of the Digidestined it would have been a familiar sight, except for the dark black armor that covered its body. In some cruel cosmic joke it was a BlackMetalGarurumon that was going to be his downfall.

"You shouldn't have come here you foolish wannabe digimon," the black wolf snarled at the defenseless mega.

"Don't be so satisfied with yourself. If it hadn't been for that one in the robes I would have ripped you in half," BlackWargreymon growled slipping further down the wall onto one of his knees.

"I could have taken you out even without Lord Deamon's help!" BlackMetalGarurumon retorted in anger as it slowly approached its prey, ready to finish the fight.

BlackMetalGarurumon stalked closer and closer to the fallen mega with a thirst for blood in his eyes. So intent on finishing off the wounded digimon the cyborg wolf digimon failed to notice the shadow growing larger across his back.

"GIGA-!?" BlackMetalGarurumon cried as the compartment in its chest opened.

But before BlackMetalGarurumon could finish its attack something land directly on his back. It wasn't anything very heavy and it seemed to have cushioned its own fall; but the strange part was that it wasn't coming off. The metal wolf digimon began to shake its body in different directions trying to get whatever had attached itself to its back, off. However, whatever it was, it seemed to be staying on. It acted more like it was holding on than having become struck. After an exhausting struggle BlackMetalGarurumon gave one more powerful jolt and buck, making whatever was attached to his back released and slide across the ground towards BlackWargreymon.

As whatever it was came to a stop the black fabric whipping around it, which had made earlier identification impossible, came to a rest as well. Now standing there between BlackMetalGarurumon and BlackWargreymon was Takuya with a smile across his face.

"Why…?" Was all BlackWargreymon could manage to say. The idea that someone had come to his rescue, especially a human, seemed utterly unbelievable.

"Why did I help you?" Takuya finished for the mega.

"Yes," BlackWargreymon replied attempting to lift himself back onto his feet.

"Just felt like it," Takuya simply stated with a smile before turning his attention back to BlackMetalGarurumon.

"Because you just…" BlackWargreymon began to repeat before he was cut off by the enraged roar of BlackMetalGarurumon.

"You little human punk! What did you think you were doing to me!?"

Takuya only shrugged his shoulders slightly, not caring how angry the digimon before him was getting.

"Do you think this is funny human!? I'll destroy you!" BlackMetalGarurumon roared.

"METAL HOWLING"

BlackMetalGarurumon cried out the name of his attack, but nothing happened. He felt the multiple missiles load and arm themselves within the different launchers that lined his back. He even felt them rattle as the missiles began to exert thrust, but they never launched.

"What's going on?!" The black metal wolf digimon cried as it turned its head to examine its back.

When the evil mega digimon finally had a clear view of the launchers on its back it instantly took notice of strange gray strips that formed X's over the compartments covering his body. Whatever these strips were, they were keeping the shutters on the launchers from opening and releasing their missiles. Suddenly all the piece fell into place for BlackMetalGarurumon. This was what the human had been doing on his back! Sealing his rocket launchers!

"Digi-Duct Tape. It has a thousand and one uses… especially after all the digital modifications," Takuya laughed while he twirled the roll of gray sticky adhesive around one of his fingers.

The special tape was another addition of Lady Ophanimon's to the Runners growing list of tools. Its creation was actually the brainchild of Takuya, who had requested a way to bind digimon they captured and repair objects of varying types. After a lot of research of methods and similar items in the real world that could address the variety of issues Takuya had brought up Lady Ophanimon eventually decide on Duct Tape, modifying it quite a bit with digital coding so that it's adhesive strength and tear resistance was boosted and giving it a high degree of protection from the elements. In a flash the stuff could be used to hold machinery together, repair tears in clothing and equipment, and bind a digimon so they could be detained; and in the case at the moment used to seal the strong mechanical compartments that lined the dark digimons back. Normally, the tape couldn't hold a powerful digimon for long, but it would last long enough for his plan.

"Don't get cocky human just because you stopped me from using just one attack. I'll still rip you to pieces with my claws!" BlackMetalGarurumon growled as it prepared to lunge at the boy in black.

"I don't think you'll have the time," Takuya stated in a playful voice.

"Why's that?" BlackMetalGarurumon asked, actually concerned that the boy might be telling the truth.

"Well, you fired up those missiles, but the launchers never opened. They've got to be about ready to blow by now," Takuya laughed.

Fear seized BlackMetalGarurumon. The boy was right! The missiles were still armed and would explode soon even if they never left the launchers on his back. As he tried to figure out what to do the sound of the rockets rattling in the launchers stopped, signifying that they had finally become critical.

BlackMetalGarurumon gave the boy, who was still playing with the roll of tape, one last piercing glare full of pure hatred and anger before the missiles detonated, blowing apart the launchers and tearing asunder the black armor. The evil cyborg digimon was instantly engulfed in a cloud of smoke and dark blue flames, disappearing from view.

Within the dark cloud BlackMetalGarurumon felt the searing pain of his own missiles as they blew him apart, but this wasn't over; he knew he could still strike at the human. His armor had been thick enough to repel a killing blow from his own attack and now enraged he prepared a counter attack.

"GIGA MISSILE" He cried as the large missile blasted forth from his chest and out of the cloud straight towards where the boy had once been standing.

Inside the cloud BlackMetalGarurumon began to laugh maliciously when he heard the resulting impact and explosion of his giant missile. The shockwave from the blast quickly blew away the smoke that had once blinded BlackMetalGarurumon, allowing him to once more gaze upon the world around him.

Almost as soon as the laughing had started, it stopped. The space before him where he had expected to find the lifeless body of the intruding human sprawled out in front of him on the ground was empty. The human and BlackWargreymon were gone.

"Behind you," a voice playfully called out from behind BlackMetalGarurumon.

The mega digimon turned around only to be greeted by a large flaming sphere more than half the size of the digimon. It burned deeply into its body, made a much easier task thanks to its now deeply fractured armor and burned body, and tore through him to the other side. With a powerful cry of anguish BlackMetalGarurumon fell to the ground and a second later burst into a cloud of black digital bits.

"That went well," Aldamon commented flames danced about his arms, slowly dying out in the cool night air after launching his Solar Wind Destroyer.

"Yeah, he was weaker than Matt's partner, so it wasn't much of a challenge. It would have been better if we could have gotten him to talk though," Takuya answered, twirling the roll of duct tape one more time before slipping it into the bag on the back of his belt.

"So what do you think happened here?" Aldamon asked as he turned his gaze over his shoulder.

"I don't know. We'll just have to ask him when he wakes up," Takuya said turning around and looking at the unconscious form of BlackWargreymon propped up against a wall of stone, safely away from the battle zone.

* * *

To be continued…


	9. A Day to Prepare

**Chapter 9**

**A Day to Prepare**

"Sorry I'm late Lord Azulongmon, but problems in the human world kept me from getting to you sooner," Gennai apologized while kneeling before the digital ruler floating high in the sky above.

"It's alright Gennai, but we do have much to discuss," Azulongmon replied, feeling somewhat sorry for the night the digital man must have had to face.

"It seems that everyone's finally arrived," Takuya walked up behind Gennai, giving little thought to the situation his arrival might cause.

He might have removed his hood and unzipped the jacket, revealing the clothes underneath, but with BurningGreymon standing next to him it was easy for Gennai to identify the boy.

"You! You were the cause of all the trouble we faced tonight!" Gennai yelled as he pulled himself into a fighting position, ready for whatever the boy in black might have had in store. He might not have stood a chance against the digimon, in fact after what he had here about the boy he might not have a chance against even him, but despite that, he intended to go down fighting.

"I guess I showed up a little too early," Takuya sighed. He was really getting tired of people greeting him with so much hostility. It was true that he deserved it from their point of view, but he just couldn't get used to being looked at like he was the enemy. It was really taking all of the pleasure of being a hero.

"Gennai! He and his partner are our allies," Azulongmon's voice boomed, shocking Gennai.

"What!?" Gennai asked with a look of confusion and surprise. He was sure that he must have somehow misheard the digital deity. What he said made no sense.

"It is a long story, but I will explain everything," Azulongmon answered, turning down the volume on his tone since the digital man seem to be listening to him.

Soon the digital ruler began to explain about the virus, reaching out into other Zones for help, Takuya's arrival, and finally the plan. At the end of the story Gennai made sure to apologize and thank Takuya for everything he had done for them.

"So is it all over?" Gennai asked the blue dragon lord.

"That depends on what the young one found at his meeting," Azulongmon replied turning his attention to Takuya.

Taking that as his cue Takuya began to retell the events that had transpired an hour ago.

"So it was most likely a trap," Gennai thought out loud.

"No, I don't think so… It's more likely that the enemy found our mystery contact before we arrived, and I'm guessing BlackWargreymon somehow got caught in the middle. But we'll know more when he regains consciousness," Takuya finished by motioning towards the mega digimon propped up against a large tree a ways behind him.

"So what do we do until then?" Gennai asked feeling that he couldn't just sit still and do nothing. He might also have been feeling a bit anxious with the control spire digimon only a few feet away. Or it could have been the fact that despite the lax attitude of boy they were still in quite a bit trouble, with the Master Digimon scheming evil somewhere and all.

"You can do whatever you want. Me, I'm going to get some sleep. I've exhausted myself and I'll be no good to anyone if I pass out later," Takuya yawned while looking for a place to get some rest. He wasn't going to find a bed in the middle of nowhere, but he could at least find a spot a little softer than rocks and dirt.

"Wait!? What happens if the enemy makes another move while we do nothing?" Gennai retorted, suddenly feeling somewhat unsure of the boy's usefulness.

"Relax… We have some time before they move again. Their first plan failed only a few hours ago, so they'll probably spend some time trying to figure out what went wrong and what to do next. Besides, we have no clues, no contact, and if they do start to move, it will most likely be something big and hard to miss," Takuya explained before he leaned back against a tree near BlackWargreymon and slid down to the ground. Once he was down he flipped the hood over his eyes and closed his jacket in preparation for sleep. Flamemon dropped down next to him and curled up like a dog, ready for some well deserved sleep.

This left the confused and worried Gennai standing there on the cliff side, wondering what the next few days would hold in store for them.

* * *

The sun in the Digital World had set hours ago and would rise again in another few. On the ridge at the edge of the woods BlackWargreymon was beginning to stir.

"Gawwhh…" BlackWargreymon groaned still sore from his loss.

"You still need to get some more rest if you want your injuries to heal," a voice beside the mega digimon spoke softly.

BlackWargreymon's attention instantly shifted to the being lying against the tree next to him. After a few tense moments the mega digimon was able to recall that it was the same human that had rescued him from BlackMetalGarurumon. He also noticed that he wasn't in the canyon of debris and smoke anymore. The boy had moved him somewhere else; somewhere safe it would seem.

"Why did you save me?" BlackWargreymon asked as he stared down at the boy in black.

"Really? This again?" Takuya sighed. "I told you. I felt like it. Besides I hate it when the bad guy wins."

"I am the bad guy," BlackWargreymon responded stirring a little when Takuya pulled his hood back and looked up at him.

"The name's Takuya Kanbara," Takuya announced shocking BlackWargreymon who had no idea how to respond to this sudden introduction.

"BlackWargreymon," was all the mega could manage to say in response. Until this point the only real social interactions the control spire digimon had with others was battling, not the kind he now faced. It was probably going to be awkward.

"BlackWargreymon, get over yourself," Takuya stated before putting his head back down and shifting into a more comfortable position.

"What!?" The black dino digimon spouted, as surprised as ever by the boys actions.

"You think too much," Takuya replied. "In that way you remind me of someone."

"What does that mean?" BlackWargreymon ran the words over and over again in his mind trying to make some sense out of them.

"See! You're doing it right now. You're trying to analyze and categorize what I just said into some kind of deeper singular meaning, instead of just taking it for what it was. Me, telling you, to relax," Takuya interrupted the mega's thoughts.

"I…" BlackWargreymon stuttered.

"So you did some bad things, but it's never too late to change," Takuya stated.

"Changing is for real digimon… not me," the troubled digimon declared. Now feeling that he was done with the conversation he attempted to get on his feet so he could fly away. Ever since the talking had started he had been feeling awkward… out of his element… and now he had had enough of it.

"Daemon."

When Takuya spoke that name the mega stopped trying to leave and sat back down. Deciding not to leave, he just stared at the human he had come to know as Takuya.

"What does that digimon have to do with anything?" He asked, wanting to know more about the opponent that had so soundly beaten him in battle.

"From what I heard BlackMetalGarurumon say you seemed to have fought him. But why did you?" Takuya added now looking back up at the towering black digimon.

"Because I saw him as a threat," was BlackWargreymon's response.

"So you took him on even though he had BlackMetalGarurumon with him as back-up, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you should have known they were a much greater threat to engage in battle than to leave alone," Takuya noted, confident in his line of reasoning.

"Yes."

"I'm guessing he and BlackMetalGarurumon were tearing up the Digital World while they were attacking another digimon in that canyon," Takuya added with the same confidence as before.

"Yes, how did you…?"

"So in the end you acted to protect the Digital World from being severally damaged, over protecting your own life. I mean you could have waited until they were done and attacked them when they were tired or parted ways. But instead, you attacked when they were at their strongest," Takuya continued interrupting the mega's question.

"…" There was no response from BlackWargreymons as he contemplated what Takuya had just said.

"Face it. You might not be the best example of a good guy, but the world still needs beings like you," Takuya concluded before closing his eyes and adjusting his position one more time. "Now, if you want to debate the matter further, get some sleep and we'll pick it up in the morning. I can also tell you more about Daemon if you want… but that's for tomorrow," with that he drifted off back to sleep.

Next to him BlackWargreymon stared at his sleeping form for a few minutes before he leaned back against the tree once more, making it creak under the renewed weight. There he spent a good while replaying his battle and what Takuya had said to him over and over again in his head, hoping he'd reach some kind of clear conclusion. As he laid there staring into dark star filled sky, sleep once again overtook the mega and he drifted off until morning, his decision to leave or stay still unmade.

* * *

The sun soon rose in both worlds. In the human world the Digidestined were celebrating Christmas with their families, while in the Digital World a meeting about the threat to both worlds was just beginning.

"BlackWargreymon, could you please tell us what happened in that canyon before we arrived?" Takuya instructed the mega digimon, hoping he could shed some light on what had happened the night before.

"…" BlackWargreymon said nothing as he stared up at Azulongmon. The defeat he had suffered at his hands still not forgotten despite his more recent defeat by Daemon.

"He's not going to tell us anything! We've just been wasting time!" Gennai interrupted the silence, angry over the plan he had been forced to go along with. It wasn't that he was an impatient man. It was the fact that the children he had chosen would soon be facing an enemy that would destroy them and that worried him to no end.

"Relax! Both of you!" Takuya announced giving each of them a look that told them it was more of an order than a request.

"I agree with the young one. There is much to know, and little time to act," Azulongmon added, hoping that at least hearing from him would calm BlackWargreymons fears of him.

"Please BlackWargreymon, we need your help to stop something really bad that's coming," Takuya asked making sure to emphasize how important this was to all of them. He wasn't too sure if he could get the control spire digimon to talk or not, but there had to be a reason. There had to be a reason why he had stuck around until morning and hadn't taken off in the night. Whatever that reason was, whether it was the temptation of learning about Daemon, or something else, he could only hope he could use that reason. Maybe he could even come to understand the conflicted digimon and vise versa.

Hearing from Takuya seemed to do the trick and the mega gave in. Taking a moment to collect himself and his thought BlackWargreymon began to recount his story.

* * *

((The Previous Night))

High above the Digital World BlackWargreymon soared in the darkening blue sky in search of a worthy opponent, or some other purpose, when a sudden massive explosion of dark fire erupted off in the distant mountain range. The sheer power and force of the explosion brought the black mega to a halt in the air as he stared in the blasts direction trying to figure it out.

"What in all the Digital World could have…" BlackWargreymon thought aloud to himself before flying off in the direction of the blast.

As he got closer to the epicenter of the explosion many smaller blasts of darkness and fire burst out from the enormous cloud of dust and debris. Down below he could make out the shape of three shadows darting around. It was apparent that the two larger shadows were attacking a smaller one which was trying it's best to defend itself from their onslaught. At any other time BlackWargreymon would have jumped into battle ready to prove his strength to any that would face him; but this time was different. Something was stopping him this time...

"Fear…" The mega dino digimon whispered to himself, realizing what was holding him back.

The two smaller human looking shadows below scared him. They were more powerful than anything he had faced before and he knew deep down that if he fought either one of them it would be the end for him. So that's where he stayed, high above, frozen in midair in awe of the incredible powers locked in battle below.

With another powerful explosion, nowhere as powerful as the explosion that had attacted BlackWargreymon's interest to begin with, blow apart the cloud of dust, exposing the ground below. Down on the ground he could make out two of the three digimon. The first was a black digimon like himself, but this one was a cyborg wolf, and the other was an oddly shaped humanoid digimon in very deep, almost black, crimson robes and hood with large bat wings sticking out of the back. The third figure was hidden by billowing black smoke being given off by the raging fires around it.

"What…?"

Suddenly BlackWargreymon's attention was drawn to some strange blue light pouring up from deep below the fractured earth. It had the appearance of some kind of large ribbon of light intertwined with thousands of others constantly coursing beneath the surface. Looking at it he couldn't make out what it was exactly, but he could feel that its appearance marked serious, maybe irreparable, damage to the Digital World. Damage that if continued could cause the Digital World itself to unravel.

Back up in the air BlackWargreymon realized that the fight below was only getting started, and that if the current flow of battle didn't change, not only would the Digital World suffer greatly, but the lone figure would also lose. He made up his mind to act by targeting the one in the robes.

"TERRA DESTROYER" With a roar he unleashed an attack hoping to catch the unknown digimon by surprise.

BlackWargreymon swallowed his fear and flung the giant ball of energy which hurtled straight at the cloaked digimon. As the huge ball closed in on its target, the robed digimon simply raise one of its arms up. A second later the raging ball of energy struck its intended target and stopped dead in its tracks.

"What the…!" BlackWargreymon roared in surprise. Down below him the unknown digimon was holding back his Terra Destroyer attack with one hand, he actually appeared to barely be trying, and glaring up at the stunned mega floating above it.

"Foolish digimon," the cloaked figure mocked with a chuckle.

"You lowly scum! How dare you attack lord Daemon!" The BlackMetalGarurumon snarled up at BlackWargreymon.

Above BlackWargreymon couldn't believe that his most powerful attack had been stopped so easily. But it was too late for regrets now, so gathering up his strength once more he unleashed his Terra Destroyer on the same target as before.

"TERRA DESTROYER"

The attack once again hurtled towards the digimon that had just been identified as Daemon, on a collision course with the first ball of energy, but in an instant BlackMetalGarurumon released an attack of its own shattering BlackWargreymon's attack before it could reach its mark.

BlackWargreymon just stared down at the interloping digimon, but he had no time to make his anger known as his attack own was suddenly sent back at him. Using the best of abilities he managed to get out of the way of the rebounded attack. Once free of the danger he turned his attention towards the one he knew must have been responsible for throwing his first attack back at him. However, when he looked, he discovered that Daemon had disappeared. This realization came a little late because before he could react a shape hot pain shot through the mega's back and he was sent flying straight into the ground below.

When he was able to open his eyes again he looked around trying to figure out what had happened. Looking up into the sky he spotted the blurred form of something floating where he had once been. He couldn't see him clearly, but he was sure it was Daemon; he was one fast and powerful digimon.

Knowing that if he stayed down much longer he would be killed by either Daemon or BlackMetalGarurumon, he quickly tried to stand up. He rocked back and forth on his feet trying to stabilize himself while his vision scrolled across the canyon. He could see BlackMetalGarurumon slowly making its way toward him and behind him the smaller figure slowly grew fuzzier.

"You're not escaping Traitor!" Daemon roared as he shot towards the ground ready to attack.

But it appeared that BlackWargreymon's attack was all the time the lone figure needed to make its escape, as a second before Daemon reached his target the figure vanished into thin air.

"I'm going after that Traitor. You take care of our little interloper here," Daemon ordered before he too disappeared, but not before he delivered another crushing blow to BlackWargreymon's stomach, expressing his rage over his interference and sending him crashing into the canyon wall a good distance away.

"Yes master," BlackMetalGarurumon replied.

* * *

((The Present))

"After that… things get kind of fuzzy until you showed up," BlackWargreymon concluded looking towards Takuya.

"There it is again. Daemon called the mysterious digimon he fought in the canyon, Traitor," Takuya noted, trying to contemplate who the digimon could possibly be or what they could have done to be branded as such.

"So whoever tried to contact you was the same, Traitor, IceDevimon was talking about," Flamemon added.

"It would appear that way wouldn't it. But what could a digimon in an organization like that have done to be labeled a traitor?" Takuya thought out loud.

"Whatever they did, it was bad enough to get Daemon set on them," Flamemon remarked.

"Yeah… for that matter what digimon could stand up to a two on one battle with a Demon Lord and a mega?" Takuya off handed mentioned while lost in his own thoughts.

"A Demon Lord?" The three others gathered on the ridge asked, confused by his use of the title.

"A group of specially evolved evil digimon. They're extremely powerful and vicious," Flamemon answered looking toward the rest of the group.

"Their evolution is so powerful and rare that only one of each can ever exist in a Zone. You kill one from your Zone and there will never be another one born of that kind in your Zone ever again," Takuya explained hoping to drive home how dangerous they really were.

"Such beings exist?" Azulongmon questioned the statement.

"Yeah, unfortunately. They're an unusually strong group of psychopathic digimon with the power and ability to attain their evil desires," Takuya tried his best to sum-up what he knew from personal experiences.

"Interesting…" Azulongmon seemed perplexed by what he had just learned. It was most likely the fact that he hadn't believe such power was possible before.

"Not exactly the word I would use to describe them," Takuya scoffed. "But you're the Digital Ruler, so whatever."

"Either way they sound pretty bad," Gennai replied, not feeling any better about the idea that an enemy such as a Demon Lord was roaming around the Digital World somewhere.

"What did you mean by what you said a moment ago? Something about a Zone?" BlackWargreymon asked slightly confused by Takuya choice of words.

"Yeah, about that…" Flamemon uneasily sighed.

"I'll explain the whole Zones thing to you later. For now all you need to know is that I come from a completely different Earth and Digital World then you," Takuya gave a rushed explanation, not having the time at the moment to go into the talk he knew from experience could take up to an hour.

"Then why are you here?" BlackWargreymon inquired. It was strange for him to show such interest, and he knew it, but something still compelled his inquire further.

"Because when things got quiet in my dimension, I decided that I would use the abilities and power I had to help out other dimensions. I guess I was looking for a purpose for me possessing the powers I do" Takuya offered as an explanation.

"I see… purpose…" BlackWargreymon stated. Something within him beginning to feel akin to this strange human; maybe he was seeing someone else looking for their place in the universe.

"All that stuff about the Demon Lords is bad news… but it still doesn't answer what we're going to do about them. The Digidestined are still in trouble and we barely know anything about our enemy," Gennai announced getting slightly frustrated with how they were handling the situation. Normally, he wouldn't lose his cool like that, but what was happening now was something he wasn't ever prepared for.

"Gennai, I understand your worry. You fear for the Digidestined since this is more than we ever thought they would face. But taking it out on the group isn't going to help," Azulongmon tried to calm the digital man.

"Azulongmon's right. We might not like it, but we have nothing to act on. And even less of an idea of what they're going to do next," Takuya sighed. He had been trying to come up with some sort of plan since BlackWargreymon's story had ended, but he had yet to come up with anything.

"Then what do you suggest we do in the mean time?" Gennai asked his frustration becoming more obvious.

"Until we can figure out what to do next, I'll keep an eye on things in the Real World. Since the enemy's last attack started there, it's most likely that their next move will start there as well," Takuya answered. He also took his knowledge about Daemon's attack in the Real World on Christmas into account when he made his decision. If he could pin down the Demon Lord long enough to ask some questions he might get the answers he needed.

"And what about us?" Gennai questioned.

"Since you can't get back to or connect to the Real World thanks to the barrier, I suggest you start looking for what's causing it in the first place. If the cause is here somewhere in the Digital Wold, I'm sure not going to find it. Besides, no one knows the Digital World like you do, so if it's here you're the one most likely to find it," Takuya offered, his mind already working over the details of his future confrontation with Daemon.

"It'll be just the two of you. Considering you don't know how many enemies you'll be up against, won't you need some back-up?" Gennai asked thinking Takuya was taking things to lightly.

"Don't worry. I have all the back-up I'll need," Takuya slyly smiled.

With the decisions made Takuya contacted Lady Ophanimon and had her open a portal to the Real World again.

When Takuya exited the Dimensional Corridor he was standing on a building overlooking the city. He stared out over the city knowing that all around him people were celebrating Christmas, which slightly depressed him. It wasn't like he was missing anything considering Fall had only just ended back in his world. What depressed him was that he couldn't help but think about having his first Christmas with Kari. He imagined the gifts they would share and the date they would go one. All of this made him really miss her and feel even worse that he had already wasted a day on the mission that he could have spent with her. But he knew that this was a higher calling. That these people needed his help and he was never the type that could turn down those in need; especially these people. All of this didn't mean he couldn't still have regrets though.

"I'm going to check out the city for any signs of Daemon or other threats. You all stay here until I call for you," Takuya ordered the others on the roof before he selected some coordinates on his Runners Phone and selected Jump. In a flash he was gone and the new day was underway.

* * *

**To be continued…**


	10. Let's Play a Game

**AN:** It's been a while since I put up an author's note, mainly because I haven't had anything to say, but recently I've found something. You all know I like writing Takuya/Kari stories because I like the idea of them, so I'm always really happy to see someone else writing for the pairing. This is why I'm recommending checking out, _**Digimon: Digital Connections**_, by **JakeKontan**. (If you want to find it just look it up under a search of Takuya and Kari stories) It's a great addition to very small field of Takuya/Kari stories. The story hasn't progressed very far yet, but I like what I've read so far and I think it needs more love. Stop by and give it a read after this. You won't be sorry.

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Let's Play a Game**

Takuya had spent most of the morning checking on the various Digidestined and their families from afar. He didn't know if Daemon's plans would be different in this Zone, so he couldn't just count on everything going the same way as he had heard; meaning the Digidestined could still be in danger.

While Takuya had check on all of the others already, he was avoiding one place in particular. Even if it wasn't his Kari, he still felt wrong about spying on her; even if it was for her own safety. That was why he kept trying to come up with a reason to go anywhere else in the city. He was still trying to come up with an idea when he arrived at the building across from the Kamiya's apartment complex. He had chosen to walk instead of teleport so that he would have more time, but the extra time didn't help any.

Takuya looked up at the window he knew separated the Kamiya household from the outside world. Sighing he turned towards the opposing building and began climbing the stairs up to the roof. A few minutes later he exited through the rooftop entrance and walked across the stone and tar covered ground. The atmosphere on the roof was somewhat quiet as the world flowed along the streets below. The cold winter winds whipped across the roof, having nothing to break it or shield Takuya from its frozen surge. Up until now Takuya had been feeling slightly alone and the feeling only got worse when he went to the edge of the building and looked over into the warm apartment.

Through the window he could see the Kamiya family gathered in the living room, talking. Opened packages, colorful paper and boxes, and new clothes were scattered about. In the corner Mrs. Kamiya was stuffing used and torn wrapping paper into a trash bag as the rest of the family was laughing at something one of them had said. Watching her Takuya could still remember how badly his first meeting with Kari's parents had gone. He guessed that having to explain to them how Kari and the rest were kidnapped by Dominimon wasn't the best way to meet your girlfriend's folks. In the end he wasn't sure if they had actually accepted his and Kari's relationship, but from what he could make out from them was that they seemed unsure of how it would play out for the two of them in the long run.

While he tried not to, his eyes eventually fell on Kari, and they didn't move off of her. "Wow, Kari was pretty cute when she was eleven, too," Takuya smiled as Kari flashed a bright smile that was all her own to her family. "No wonder Davis and TK had a thing for her," he finished with an understanding laugh.

He found it difficult, but when the slight heartache got too bad he turned away and began scanning the surrounding area for trouble. Takuya didn't notice anyone or anything out of place, except for him that was.

After he had had enough he turned around and walked over to the rooftop entrance and leaned against the concrete structure. He loosened his legs and slid down the side until he was sitting on the rooftop and against the cold wall. As he sat there he ran scenario after scenario over in his head trying to figure out how he was best going to resolve the coming incident. As he thought it through, one problem kept coming up. That thought eventually turned into a question about how his interference in this Zone might affect it and its future. This would essentially be the second time he would change this world; well in a matter of speaking that was true. His interference in this incident was saving the Zone, but it would also drastically change it, like it had already with his Kari's Zone.

Thinking like that wasn't Takuya's style so he shook it from his mind for a final time and returned to thinking about what to do once things started happening again. After about an hour he had come up with a plan. It was a plan that would require taking some risks and a lot of his skills to pull off. It wouldn't be more then he could handle and if he did it right, it could actually be a lot of fun.

With his plan in mind he got back up and returned to the buildings ledge. Inside the apartment Kari and Tai had put on their coats and shoes in preparation to leave the apartment.

"Great, they're leaving. Now I have to follow them," Takuya tiredly sighed. With that he turned and headed back down to the street so he could follow the two of them. On the way down all he could think about was how difficult trailing them was going to be. Tai would be easy to get around, but Kari and Gatomon would be a different story. Gatomon's years of living in fear of Myotismon had made her slightly paranoid, yesterday didn't help either, which had made her even more aware of her surroundings. Kari on the other hand just had, ability, for lack of a better word. She couldn't really control it, but sometimes her ability to sense things was greater than even his. Whether it was instinct or something else Takuya was unsure. He just knew he had to be careful around her at the moment.

When he reached the bottom floor he quickly ducked into an alley and waited for the two siblings to exit the building. A minute later they appeared and began walking down the street. When they were far enough away that Takuya felt comfortable enough to follow them, he stepped out from the shadows and off in the same direction. He continued to follow the two for a while, always making sure to keep them in sight; but suddenly Takuya felt a digital presence coming up from behind him. He instantly ducked into another alley seconds before Davis ran by with DemiVeemon in his arms.

"Kari! Tai!" Davis called out to the two ahead of him.

"Hey Davis…" The two greeted him, slightly unhappy that Davis was yelling on such a peaceful morning.

"I guess if I'm with you two I won't be late for the meeting at the park this time," Davis laughed as he closed the gap between the three of them.

"We will be late if we don't hurry," Tai announced before turning around and heading off once again. Kari and Davis quickly followed after him.

"What's with Tai?" Davis asked Kari with a whisper.

"I think he's still a little worried about what happened last night," Kari responded in a whisper as well.

"You mean about that jerk from yesterday?" Davis inquired while he punched his fist into his palm.

"Some of it…" Kari said uneasily. "But I think something else about the incident is bothering him more."

"What?" Davis asked confused by what Kari had just said. However, he let it go pretty easily since he soon started arguing with DemiVeemon about how Davis had almost dropped him when he had punched his palm.

This time Takuya didn't emerge from the alleyway even as the three disappeared from sight. He knew what park they were taking about so he no longer needed to follow them. He could just Jump to a secluded spot in the park and make his way to the meeting spot from there.

Takuya removed the phone from his coat pocket and selected the Jump function. He scrolled across the map and selected a spot he was familiar with; which he knew would be empty and no one would notice the light from his Jump. A second later he hit the enter button and disappeared from the alley.

A moment later the light died down and he was standing by the edge of a frozen lake. The lake and fields were surrounded by dense rows of trees with only a small dirt path leading back to the main part of the park. This was the same place he had had his first fight in the Real World over the Sealed Digivice with Darcmon. But thanks to the three fights that took place in the area, it no longer looked like this. Actually the last time he had checked this part of the park had been completely closed off.

"It should only be a short walk from here, but I better give them some time to get there," Takuya thought out loud to himself. While he waited he walked over to the old wooden park bench and sat down. He leaned back and tried to think about what they could have called this meeting for. Well besides from the obvious incidents with him.

After about ten minutes he got up from the bench and headed off to the old playground so he could keep an eye on the group during their meeting and protect them if the need arose. He also considered this a chance to figure out what the Digidestined were planning to do about what had happened the night before.

Eventually he arrived at the small forest that surrounded the meeting spot. He stepped into the tree cover and crept quietly to the old playground. After a minute of sneaking he arrived at the edge of the woods and ducked behind a patch bushes, out of sight of the Digidestined. From the looks of it the last few members had only a few minutes ago and now they were waiting for the meeting to begin.

"I think it's best if we share our experiences from last night," Tai decided to start the meeting on topic.

Each of the Digidestined took their time and told the group exactly what happened to them. Takuya didn't really feel like listening to this since he still felt guilty about all of it. He actually began to tune them out until he heard Kari finish her story.

"It's strange, but I don't think he was a bad guy…" Kari said in a quiet and unsure voice. In truth, she had had her doubts about what she had seen. She felt that he was watching out for them and that what he had done what he had done for them. She just felt he wasn't evil, but didn't understand why she believed that.

Hearing that really made Takuya feel better about what had happened last night and it pushed him harder to try and save the Zone. The happy feeling didn't last long though when a foul presence suddenly began to fill the park. The sudden appearance was enough to rattle Takuya, making him just stared straight ahead looking for anything that could be creating such an evil aura.

"_That terrible aura's definitely coming from the park… but where?"_ Takuya thought to himself as he tried to focus his senses. But whatever it was, it was too well hidden for him to pick up on any better without aid. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to find the source by feeling it out he reached into his pocket and pulled out his second pair of goggles; his Scanners.

The crosshairs on the Scanners locked onto one object after another, mainly the digimon and digivices, until it hit a big growing target beneath the Digidestined. A hazard symbol appeared next to the scan as well as a long column of data that might have made sense to someone like Izzy or Koji, but meant nothing to Takuya. His only concern was its growing mass and the hazard symbol I had been tagged with. The feeling of worry only intensified when the yellow hazard symbol turned orange, signifying that with each passing scan the goggles computer made, the higher the level of threat they assessed the presence to be. Only a few more colors stood between it and the ultimate threat level. Whatever it was, it was coming from the ground underneath the park and the Digidestined; and to make matters worse none of them seemed to notice it.

"Something's coming…" Takuya growled quietly. "_I have to get them out of there now! But how are you going to do that Takuya… Think first, act second, stupid,_" Takuya thought to himself. He quickly set about thinking of a plan as the group continued to talk. A few seconds later he let out a depressed sigh. "Why is that the only plan I can think of…?" He berated himself in a whisper.

"You're kidding right!?" Davis yelled in surprise from atop of the monkey bars.

"No…" Kari quietly answered, not looking Davis in the eyes as she said it.

"I hate to say this, but I agree with Davis," TK added.

"Yeah, there's nothing good about that evil, stupid, ugly, jerk face, punk, of a murder!" Davis listed off insults in a rant. He ended with an exhale of triumph, as if he had achieved some kind of victory over the figure in black. After Davis's venting the group returned their attention to Kari, hoping she would elaborate on what she was saying, but she wouldn't get the chance now. Someone else was about to speak.

"You know, it's not nice to talk about people like that when they're not around to defend themselves," a cool voice from behind Davis.

The sudden interruption froze the group's blood. The initial surprise lasted only a second and as soon as it passed the Digidestined turned their heads back to Davis. Davis on the other hand had to turn his entire upper half to see behind him, and what he saw once he did sent a chill down his spine. There standing directly behind him was the same figure in black with the hood pulled over his eyes that had constantly interrupted them the night before. He was no longer towering over him from the roof of a skyscrapper. No, now he was now towering over him on the cold metal rungs of the monkey bars. How he had managed to get up there without anyone noticing him was beyond them, let alone how he had found them.

Before Davis could react the figure in black leaned down closer to his ear and spoke. "It's an even worse idea to do it when they are."

"You!?" Davis said trying to instinctively put some distance between himself and the figure in black. This would have been a good idea if he hadn't forgotten that he was five feet off of the ground sitting on the edge of the monkey bars. The moment he leapt back he had nothing left to sit on and fell five feet to the cold dirt floor below.

"Are you going to be okay?" The figure in black asked in a cool, but concerned voice.

"Shut up!? You did this!" Davis shouted up at the figure in black still shaken from his sudden appearance.

"You're blaming me for your overreaction and the ensuing fall?" Takuya voiced in a puzzled tone.

"You!" Both Tai and Matt roared in unison. They both appeared to be angry at him and he couldn't really blame them.

"It would surprise you at how fast you get tired of that being the first word people greet you with… especially with that same negative inflection every time," Takuya responded sarcastically from beneath his hood.

"…" There was no reply from the Digidestined. Takuya hoped that they were just still in shock and not trying to imagine what it must be like to be greeted with an angry 'You' a lot.

"You won't harm anyone this time!" Gatomon suddenly roared as she lunged at the figure in black without warning.

"_Crap…! Twice my first meeting with Gatomon's started with her attacking me,"_ Takuya sighed in his head.

Gatomon's sparking paws of electricity quickly approached Takuya, but thanks to years of training he was easily able to react to the situation. He waited until the last second before side stepping the attack leaving Gatomon with only empty air to strike at before crashing into the ground near the edge of the park.

"That's the idea! Let's play a little game of tag," Takuya stated with a whimsical tone.

"What!?" The Digidestined stared at him in utter shock. They had expected almost anything from the figure in black, but a game of tag was just not on any of their lists.

"Do you think this is funny?!" Matt questioned the cloaked Digidestined with an angry yell. Normally he wasn't the type to get angry and act so rashly, but something about the way this guy acted really set him off. He just acted so carefree and cool, like nothing could touch him. Or it could be the fact that he had set a squad of Mexican police on him and Ken the night before.

Without giving a response Takuya took a step forward and a dropped to the ground. He landed in a standing position, without even having to brace for the impact, next to Davis who just stared up at him. Then focusing his strength into his legs Takuya lunged forward towards Matt. His speed and sudden movements caught the team by surprise giving them no time to react. In the next instant he was right beside Matt who could only watch him from the corner of his eye.

"Tag… You're it!" Takuya announced in a playful voice as he placed a hand on Matt's back and gave a little push. The push sent Matt stumbling forward but he managed to regain his composure and stay on his feet.

The Digidestined turned to face the figure in black just in time to see him run towards one of the walls that bordered the park. When he was close enough he bent his legs slightly and kicked off of it, launching himself to the top of the six foot wall. He stood balanced on the stone wall and looked back at the stunned Digidestined.

"Come and get me…" He sung before he dropped off of the wall and disappeared on to the other side.

"Get back here!" Matt yelled after him.

"_I wonder if this will really work?"_ Takuya thought to himself as he quickly crossed the street. He wouldn't have to wait long for his answer; it would come with a loud slam of metal against brick. The gate was still vibrating from hitting the stone wall when all of the Digidestined passed through it in a mad rush.

"_Hmmm… I guess they are up for it,"_ Takuya thought to himself with a small internal laugh at the sight. "Hey, you do realize that's public property right, so you should be more careful with it," he yelled across the street to the group with a whimsical tone.

"Get back here!" Both Tai and Matt yelled from the other side of the road.

"Haa!" Takuya laughed before he turned and quickly made his escape down the street.

With the speed and agility he had gain through years of training it was easy for Takuya to keep ahead of the untrained Digidestined. The difficult part was that it took time to use the Scanners to look for a target. Meaning he would have to stop, look all around, and wait for the scan to complete before he could tell if the hazardous anomaly was gone yet. He also had to make sure that they were still close by; if he put too much distance between himself and his pursuers they could be attacked or even return to the park. All of which was going to be difficult with the Zones Digidestined chasing after him.

"_This is some plan you've come up with Takuya. Definitely another one of the most interesting one's you've had in a while,"_ Takuya mentally berated himself as he slid around a corner. After turning the corner he lifted the Scanners up to his eyes and turned back to the park. Through the wall of the building the crosshairs locked onto the Digidestined first and then the mass of seething energy below the park. It had stopped growing, but was still there, which meant it wasn't able to chase them or it was just waiting for some reason. It was impossible to tell.

Takuya only had a few seconds before the Digidestined closed a good chunk of the gap and were almost on him once again. Slipping the Scanners back in his coat pocket he took off down the alley once more with the Digidestined in hot pursuit. As he turned the corner and took in the layout of the street before him a sly smile spread across his face.

"Why not…?" Takuya said in an exhausted laugh as if his next move was unavoidable.

* * *

"What is with this guy?" Davis yelled to the rest of the group as they turned the same corner the figure in black had moments ago.

"I have no idea! It's like he's playing with us!" Matt shot back.

"He did say that he wanted to play tag," TK interjected.

"But it's weird… He managed to sneak up on us, so why didn't he just attack? Or anything else besides from this?" Tai questioned. What the figure in black had said to him in Siberia still keep coming back to him, as if trying to tell him he was missing something.

"Speaking of weird, does anyone else find how fast he's moving to be kind of odd?" Ken asked. He had always kept himself in good shape, but this guy was on a whole different level.

"He went around that corner," Yolei called out reminding them of the task at hand. They had just turned down the alley in time to see the figure in black turn around the edge of a building and disappear from view once more.

With a burst of adrenaline fueled speed the Digidestined came sliding around the corner to find a semi-crowded street lined with cafés and store fronts. There weren't that many people around, but there was apparently enough for the figure to disappear into.

"Where did he go now?" Davis panted as they all scanned the area for the figure in black. There really didn't seem like there could be a place for him to hide when he looked like that.

"Excuse me," a feminine voice called attention to itself from their side. The Digidestined quickly wheeled around in response and came face to face with a young woman dressed in a green apron over a brown shirt and pants, carrying a brown circular tray in one of her arms. On top of the tray were several white mugs of some kind of steaming beverage, cooling in the winter air.

"Ahh… Yes," Tai answered his mind drawing a complete blank as to why this waitress was addressing them.

"These are for you," the woman stated lowering the eleven mugs down to their eye level. Inside was a hot brown frothy liquid with tiny marshmallows floating on the surface. By the appearance and smell it was pretty obvious that it was hot chocolate.

"For us?!" They all asked looking down at the cooling mugs before them.

"Yes. That boy over there paid for them and told me to deliver them to the people who came around this corner," the woman explained pointing to one of the café tables across the street. They quickly followed her finger to a person dressed in a long black jacket taking some calm sips from the same kind of white mug that was set out before them. When he noticed that they had spotted him he lifted his cup up to them and gave them a little nod as if asking them to join him and enjoy his gift.

"He's joking right…!?" Many of the members said as they stared at him, taking in his strange behavior.

"Do you think this is funny!?" Davis and TK yelled in unison to the figure in black who tried to act all innocent, like he hadn't done anything. You could tell they were angry when they started acting the same. In the next instant the two of them started charging across the street, ignoring the warm beverages being offered to them. The moment they began to cross the figure hopped up from his seat and disappeared down a side alley. They all followed the alleyway along all its bends and turns until they came to a dead end.

"Where did he go now!?" TK asked obviously frustrated by the current activities.

*SLURP*

A sudden slurping sound carried into the alley. Where it had come from was a complete mystery. It sounded again but the source never revealed itself.

"You know, this stuff's pretty good," a whimsical voice hummed from above. The attention of those below instantly shifted to the edge of the building about six stories above them. There sitting on the ledge sipping from the white mug he had back at the café sat the figure in black with his feet dangling over the side playfully. "You really should have taken a break and had some," he added before tipping it back fully, downing the last big gulp. This strange performance was just enough to numb the brains of those **below.** Never before had they been this overwhelmed by the odd actions of an enemy; this was something completely new.

"What is wrong with you!?" Davis finally yelled, his frustration reaching an all new level.

"Let's just say what I did and will do are necessary… How I went about it might have been a little odd but…" He began to explain as he set down the empty mug and stood up. He was kind of feeling guilty now, but it had worked. After his last check from his perch with the Scanners he had confirmed that the rising presence had faded, breaking off its attempt at the Digidestined. With his job done for now he turned away, opened his Runners Phone, and prepared to leave.

"I don't get it…!" Kari's voice suddenly cried out. It was a voice full of both understanding and confusion; and one thing was for sure. She wanted answers. "Are you our enemy… or…" She added before becoming quiet. She had wanted to ask if he was actually trying to help them, but that view wasn't really popular at this moment, so in time she lost her nerve.

This statement had a pretty strange effect on Takuya. Hearing her call him an enemy actually hurt. Looking at her from the shadows of his hood might have hidden his true feelings, but it allowed him to see all of hers. He could look into her soft crimson eyes and feel many of the things he felt from the one who he willingly gave his heart to and who willingly gave him hers. He knew she wasn't the same person as his Kari, he could feel that with his entire being, but with that face and soft voice even he would faultier.

"It's difficult…" He suddenly responded in a monotone voice before turning his head away and selecting the Jump function on his Runners Phone. Before hitting the enter button he turned back and looked down at the group. "Be careful tonight…" He added, his voice flooding with a mixture of seriousness and concern.

"What…?" A collective what from those below was his only response before he walked away from the ledge and hit the enter button. A flash of light from above told them that he had once again disappeared and they were left alone with all their questions.

* * *

The world once again returned to view as the Jump ended depositing Takuya on whatever roof he had picked out of all the ones that littered the city's skyline. He had already spent some time at the park trying to figure out what he had run into, but in the end he was left without an answer and a fast approaching deadline.

"So what happened?" Flamemon asked in a yawn. While Takuya had been away the rookie of flame had been filling his belly and getting some needed rest. It had been Takuya's orders since if tonight was going to go the same way it had in his friends Zone, they would be coming face to face with another of the Demon Lords; and whoever he brought along. In truth Takuya didn't know what to expect tonight. He knew that his previous knowledge had been right so far, but the virus digimon meant anything and everything could change. In many ways it already had.

"A little trouble, but everything's still heading towards tonight." Takuya answered as he brought his knees to his chest in a crouched position. He sat there on the edge of the building watching the Sun set over the skyline, knowing that a dangerous night lay in wait. And somewhere out there in a Zone just like this one was the person he wanted to see more than anything. But in this Zone they needed him more. "It'll be dark soon… We'll move out after a while…" He added in a solemn tone before turning back to look at the two he had brought with him. Behind him he heard them give their different signs of agreement before he closed his eyes and got some time to himself.

"K… A… R… I… Kari…" He sighed running his fingers over the pink metal bracelet with the white stars on it. He made sure to trace each letter with his cold fingertip letting his anxiety fade and readying his mind.

* * *

"T… A… K… U… Y… A… Takuya…" A soft voice breathed as she traced the black and orange metal bracelet with her warm fingertips. When she did this it helped her feel close to him even though the entirety of the Multi-verse separated them. Somehow it made her feel connected to him. As if somewhere he was doing the same exact thing at the same exact moment.

For Kari this connection would have to be enough for now since he was still so far away, lost in the lights of another city, in another Zone. But she knew she would see him soon. Their connection told her so. Holding on to that feeling tightly in her heart she settled into her warm bed hoping to dream of him.

* * *

**To be continued…**


	11. Confrontation under Streetlights

**Chapter 11**

**Confrontation under Streetlights**

Takuya had been looking out over the city for a few hours now. Down below him, he watched what few people there were in the streets as they rushed home to be with their families, hoping to squeeze a little more family time out of what remained of Christmas. He watched as the Sun sunk behind the skyline and darkness spread across the city, causing the towering buildings to fill, room by room, with warm inviting light and the streetlights flickered to life.

"It's time to go," Takuya stated as he rose to his feet. He turned and walked towards his companions waiting for him in the shadow. As he walked across the roof he pulled the hood over his head once more and removed his Runners Phone from his pocket and selected the Jump function.

"Everyone remembers what to do, right?" He asked not really wanting an answer. He just felt like it was something he had to do, so he didn't bother to wait for an answer. Then, with a press of a button and a flash of light the roof was empty. The small team was already underway.

* * *

"What do you want from me?" Ken yelled at Oikawa. The pale man in the purple trench coat just gave the boy a sadistic smile as Arukenimon and Mummymon hung behind him in their human forms.

"I only want you to come with me, Ken," Oikawa responded.

"Do you really think we're going to let you take him?" Davis yelled, stepping in front of Ken before he could answer for himself.

"That's right!" Yolei added taking a step forward as well.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm sure they'll also be sorry to hear that," Oikawa teased.

"What do you mean by, they?" Ken angrily asked, not liking the way Oikawa had said what he had.

"I'll show you. Maybe they can convince you to comply," Oikawa again teased as he motioned towards a van parked in the distance. Without hesitation Arukenimon and Mummymon walked over to the van and took hold of the back door handles. Each giving a tug the doors swung open revealing the contents of the vehicle.

"…"

"How is an empty van supposed to convince us…?" Davis voiced what they were all thinking after a period of uncomfortable silence. The situation had been so tense a second ago, as if Oikawa really had the upper hand, but now the strange turn of events had moved things in an awkward direction.

"WHAT!?" Oikawa and his two digimon accomplices yelped, turning their attention to the vans open doors. The Digidestined were right; where there should have been a group of young children there were only shadows now.

"What did you two fools do?!" Oikawa screamed at the two who cringed in fear at his words. "It's empty!" He added with another angry cry. The two evil digimon cowered against the open doors trying to come up with a reason why the van was empty when a voice from the shadows of the van spoke.

"Well… not completely empty," the voice sung playfully as a streetlight above the van flickered to life. The pale yellow light pushed back the shadows in the van, revealing a pair of legs. One was extended outward while the other was bent; both were covered in a pair of dark blue pants.

"Who…!?" Oikawa and his two accomplices spoke in unison once again.

"Is that what you really want to ask me?" The voice answered as its owner leaned forward and rested an arm on top of the bent knee before bringing their head into the light. Those within the Digidestined instantly pulled back in shock upon seeing the reappearance of the hooded figure in black.

"YOU!?" Davis and TK yelled in unison, preparing themselves for a new battle, while frantically scanning the area of any sign for his partner digimon.

"Like I said before, I'm really getting tired of that greeting…" the figure in black sighed with a slight twitch, before pushing off of the floor of the van and launching himself forwards, landing just outside of the van opening. On either side of him, Arukenimon and Mummymon stood stiffly, too shocked by his actions to react.

"What did you say earlier!?" Oikawa interrupted still trying to get over the shock of the mysterious figures appearance.

"I said that's not the question you want to ask me," Takuya teased as he waved a finger at Oikawa. "What you really want to know, is how I got those kids out without anyone noticing despite how close you've all been to the van this whole time," he playfully added.

"He's got a point. How did he do that?" Mummymon spoke as he peered inside the back of the van, looking for a clue as to how he had done what he did. A short distance away Oikawa just stared at his minions in an utter state of shock.

"What are you two doing!? Grab him!" Oikawa screamed at the two, shaking them from their surprise.

After recovering, the two lunged at the figure, who only sighed and shrugged his shoulders in disappointment.

The two quickly closed the short distance between themselves and him, but the moment they got close enough Takuya went into action. He took a step back dodging Arukenimon's attempt to wrap her arms around him as he raised one of his arms into the air, and in the next instant he brought his elbow down hard on the back of her neck. Her body instantly went limp and fell to the asphalt at his feet. Next, he turned his attention to the distracted Mummymon, too worried about his crush hitting to street to notice anything else. He slid to the side using a foot to knock Mummymon off balance, causing him fall forward against the bumper of the truck. Mummymon quickly tried to recover, but was a second too slow as Takuya took hold of one of the van doors and slammed it shut, smashing it against the evil digimons head and knocking him out as well. With both digimon incapacitated, he just shrugged again, and stepped over their still forms as Oikawa and the Digidestined just stared at him in amazement.

"See, that's what happens when you don't get bonded henchmen. You should really look into getting some Mega level minions at least," the hooded figure teased as he brushed imaginary dust off of his hands.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Oikawa screamed, releasing his verbal fury upon the new arrival, while on the inside he thought about how it could be possible that one person could ruin all his years of planning in a single night.

"That's not really what's important right now," the hooded figure suddenly spoke very seriously as he continued to walk forward, only coming to a stop when a noise from behind caught his attention. Looking over his shoulder he watched Arukenimon and Mummymon rise to their feet and transform to their digimon forms.

"You'll pay for that!" Arukenimon hissed, rubbing her sore neck as she and Mummymon prepared to move in on the figure in black once more. This time in their much stronger digimon forms.

"Just couldn't sleep through this, could you?" Takuya sighed. "I'll just have to let my new friend… _entertain_… you," he quickly added with a playful tone.

"New friend…? He doesn't mean any of us, does he?" Davis asked, still slightly confused by what was happening.

"Davis, is there any universe in which we could ever be friends with him?" TK inquired, giving the goggle wearing boy an angry stare.

"I don't know… Maybe…?" Davis answered as he cringed from his friend's angry glare.

"New friend…?" Arukenimon and Mummymon asked as they looked to each other and then back to the figure in black. When they turned back to him his arm was raised with a finger pointing skyward. Their gaze traveled up along his arm and up into the black sky until their eyes locked onto something that paralyzed them with fear. Seeing the horrified looks on the two digimons faces Oikawa and Digidestined followed their eyes to the point they were staring at, and they too were gripped with shock and fear.

"BlackWargreymon!" Yolei yelped in surprise.

Only about fifty feet, just out of the line of sight for those on the ground, the powerful mega created from control spires hovered in the air, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at Arukenimon and Mummymon, whose stomachs sunk to the floor as they were overcome with fear.

"This guy's teamed up BlackWargreymon!?" Cody added feeling that this situation was starting to get out of control. It had already been out of control, so now it was moving into some all new messed up territory.

"You got this?" The figure in black asked his back-up.

"Yeah," BlackWargreymon turned his head and slyly smiled at Takuya. With a return nod from the human he returned his glare to the cowering digimon below.

"HELP US!" The two evil digimon cried out as they ran off into the night with BlackWargreymon in hot pursuit, leaving many of the spectators in a mental stupor as they tried to process what had just happening over the last few minutes.

"Okay, now that we finished that bit of business, we can focus on the real issue," the figure in black said, easily brushing off the situation.

"The real issue…?" Kari whispered as the rest of the Digidestined looked at each other trying to make sense of everything. As they tried to figure it out the hooded boy quickly extended his arm and pointed towards a spot off to the side of the street.

"You better come out!" He shouted still pointing and focusing his gaze on a single spot in the asphalt. Silence quickly followed. After nothing happened an awkward feeling began to develop as the Digidestined and Oikawa stared at him and the spot, now thinking he was somewhat insane.

"Who is he talking too?" Cody asked after some time passed and the hooded figure continued to point at the spot.

"I don't know… I'm starting to think he might not be all there…" TK noted staring at the person in question.

"Something's wrong…" Kari quietly added, drawing some attention to herself. She had been planning to elaborate on her though, but a sudden deep raspy voice began to speak from out of nowhere.

"Interesting… but who are you to call me out, boy…" A nasty voice echo forth. As soon as the voice stopped talking a dark purple energy rippled across the ground from the exact point the figure was pointing at, as a set of red spikes arose from the black surface. They continued to rise giving way to a pair of large bat like wings and a crimson hooded head with horns and a dark slit where a pair of thin blue eyes stared out . Soon the torso was visible, revealing broad pointed shoulders and black vestments over the crimson robes. The arms were long with white grotesque fingers and crimson nails, while a strange medallion hung from his neck. After a few more seconds the entirety of the digimons form was out, revealing a pair of purple curved slippers and black fringe at the bottom of the robes with gold eyes sown into it.

"There was actually someone there…?" Davis commented in disbelief as the dark digimon finished exiting the street and set its feet down upon the asphalt.

"But who is it?" Yolei questioned taking a step back, away from the new arrival. Just by looking at the dark digimon the Digidestined could tell that it was powerful. How powerful, they couldn't be sure.

"Daemon, you're so lame. Sneaking around in the dark like some stalker," the figure sarcastically greeted the digimon.

"How did you…!?" Daemon inquired in a surprised tone before quickly regaining his composure. How could the human before him, know of him? Let alone find him while he was hiding? Daemon thought to himself as he stared at the hooded boy in black.

"Let's just say, I was expecting you big guy," he responded with a playful tone.

"If you were expecting me boy, you should have come better prepared," Daemon growled. He really didn't like the idea that this boy wasn't taking him seriously.

"I don't know about that. I wasn't any better prepared when I took down your subordinate the other day," Takuya teased with a wicked smile.

"Subordinate…?" Daemon questioned, but in the back of his mind he already knew who he was talking about. It had been over twenty-four hours since BlackMetalGarurumon had been in contact with him, and now he might have found the reason way.

"Yeah, you know. The one with four metals paws and likes to shot missiles at people… or maybe I should say, liked to. You know, the whole past tense thing," the figure continued to taunt Daemon.

"Do you really think that just because you defeated BlackMetalGarurumon, you stand a chance against me boy! He was nothing compared to me!" Daemon roared. He wasn't one to get angry, but so far, at every turn this boy was getting the better of him.

"What digimon did he just say!?" TK asked out of surprise. Hearing that there had actually been a dark version of his brother's partner had caught the entire team by surprise, and even more surprising was that the boy in black claimed to have taken it out.

"Considering how easily he went down. I do," Takuya answered with a confident smile.

"You little…!" Daemon began to curse before Takuya raised his voice and interrupted him.

"But that's not what's important right now. What I want to know about now is how you sealed the Digital World," the boy in black suddenly stated, cutting off the fuming demon lord.

"How he what…!?" Davis voiced what the rest were thinking. The strange news kept coming with this guy. But could it be possible? Could the Digital World really be sealed on one side? Could he actually be telling the truth? Ever since their world tour there hadn't been any contact from the Digital World. They had just assumed it because their allies were giving them a break for the holiday.

"I think it has something to do with…!" The figure in black stated loudly as he quickly raising his arm and pointing straight at Daemon. The demon lord instantly reached for his own chest before a smile spread across the hooded boys face and he stopped all movement. Something was wrong. Had he, Daemon, made a mistake just now?

"Thanks for the answer," Takuya smiled slyly before continuing. "But I still have some more questions for you."

"What makes you think I'll tell you anything?" Daemon angrily yelled at him in response.

"Because the threat of death can be a pretty powerful motivator," he mused in response.

"I don't know whether this guy is really that good, or just crazy," TK stated as he gripped his D-3. This guy might have been their enemy, but he was still human and they would save him if it came down to it.

"I don't think he's crazy," Kari noted taking a step forward and gripping her D-3 as well, but deep down she knew she wasn't going to need it. It was strange, but she felt safe when this guy was around. Not once did she fear him or the situations that seem to develop around him.

"Who do you think you are to threaten me?" Daemon roared, growing more and more infuriated by the second.

"…" The human in black gave no answer. He only put his hands in his jacket pockets and stared at Daemon.

"Do you fall so silent now because your big talk has failed you?" Daemon began to laugh feeling more confident due to the boy's silence. However, on the inside he was still seething with anger. How dare this human make him, a demon lord, doubt himself.

"No," Takuya responded calmly, sending Daemons anger rushing to the surface once again.

"Then how do you intend to put the fear of death into me, boy?" Daemon snarled.

"With my big talk," he smiled back.

"What…!?" Daemon went livid with anger.

"Allow me to explain it to you. While I've been keeping all of your attention on me with all my _big talk_…" Takuya took a dramatic pause in his explanation to make sure Daemon was paying attention before he finished. "…my partner's been getting into position to attack you from behind," he finished with a smile.

Daemon blood ran cold with those words. He hadn't been paying attention to anything else but the boy for a while now. His anger and surprise had cloud everything else but the target of his rage. When he switched his focus to behind him he could already hear the whoosh of the wind kicked up by something moving quickly towards him. As fast as he could Daemon whipped around, but not in enough time to do anything. The first thing that greeted him after turning was an armored fist and a two pronged golden blaster. The two prongs flew past him on each side before crashing into the asphalt and exploding in a cloud of dust and debris.

A good distance from the impact the Digidestined stepped back in shock at the sudden and violent appearance of the large digimon. This form wasn't one they had seen before. It was bigger than the dragon one and had a lot of the features of the human one Yolei and Sora had described, mixed in.

"Great job, Aldamon!" Takuya cheered to his partner who gave him a smile, but continued to use all of his power to drive his arm downward.

With a powerful flap of his fiery colored wings Aldamon blew away the dust cloud, revealing the stunned demon lord pinned between the golden prongs of the blaster. Daemon could only look up at the searing heat of the blasting mechanism with utter disbelief. How could things have turned out this way, was all he could think as the large digimon continued to push down on him, keeping him held fast against the shattered asphalt.

"Anymore questions before we begin?" Takuya asked with a victories smile. In his jacket pocket he released his D-tector, which he had used to increase his partners speed for the quick attack, and then, switched to max out strength for the pin. Across from him the younger generation of Digidestined stared on in awe at how impressively he had controlled the situation. Every part of his plan had been perfectly executed and without even giving the slightest hint that it was a trap. Though, now that the figure in black had his target, what possible questions could he want to ask?

* * *

**To be continued…**


	12. A Talk with the Devil

**Chapter 12**

**A Talk with the Devil**

"I can't believe he just did that!" Davis stated in awe. He hated to admit it, but the guy in black was incredible. The Digidestined were having similar thoughts at the moment, but chose to keep them to themselves.

"Okay, now that I have your undivided attention, let's get to those questions," the figure in black teased the infuriated demon lord. Takuya normally wasn't so vindictive with his enemies, but he just considered it payback for all of the evil things Daemon had probably done over its lifetime. Topping his list was being part of this whole mess which was keeping him from seeing Kari for the first time since they had parted ways two months ago; as well as making him look like a villain in front of an alternate Kari.

"Do you really expect me to talk human?" Daemon roared in response, but it was just brave talk considering he was pinned to the ground staring up at a fully charged blaster with no chance of raising a defense.

With a proper defense and some wiggle room he might have been able to escape, but as it was the attack staring him down was enough to end him. If he somehow did manage to survive the pointblank range shot to his vitals, his chest and heart, he would be so injured that an easy second shot would finish him.

"Of course. You want to live and I want information, so it's a win-win situation for both of us," Takuya noted as he walked over and sat down next to Daemon as if he didn't have a care in the world. As if Daemon weren't a powerful evil demon lord. He would never dream of doing what he was with a Zone Crossing version of the same digimon, but the much weaker version before him wasn't too much of a threat. Dangerous, but not something a careful plan and a bit of thought couldn't handle. "Besides, what do you have to lose by answering a few of my questions?" He added with a smile from beneath his hood.

"And how do I know you'll let me go after I answer those questions?" Daemon shot back, not believing that he was going to be walking away from the situation.

"I give you may word that if you tell me what I want to know, I'll release you," the figure in black swore while raising a hand into the air; as a sign of his promise. Daemon, Aldamon, and the Digidestined just stared at him in disbelief. Did he really expect Daemon to believe that? Picking up on that sentiment Takuya let out a sigh before speaking again. "Anyways if I'm right, you're not the one I need to worry about," he added with a sly smile, hoping to get the right reaction from Daemon. At those words a glint of realization shown in Daemon's eyes. He had accepted what the figure in black had said and he now saw a chance of escaping with his life.

"What is it that you want to know?" Daemon said in compliance before turning his eyes skyward and away from Takuya. Maybe not looking at the person who was so completely embarrassing him just made the current situation easier. On the other side of the conversation a smile of victory spread across Takuya's face.

"The first thing I want to know is, what was the purpose of the virus in the digimon I destroyed? I don't see your group wanting to destroy the Digital World when it could just as easily be taken over and enslaved," Takuya put to Daemon.

"So it was you…" Daemon grumbled in anger. Until now he mustn't have know why the plan had failed. Did that mean the different groups weren't as well connected as Takuya had assumed.

"A virus in the digimon he…" Kari murmured as the group exchanged confused looks. If this new information was true, what did that mean about the figure in black? But right now they didn't know if they could trust anything either of the two said.

"You are correct, boy. The virus was only meant to break the barrier between the Digital World and the human world," Daemon answered in a hiss. Apparently, he still felt some form of pride in the fact that he knew things the figure in black didn't.

"If you did that it would have spread utter chaos throughout both worlds," Takuya quietly remarked to himself. Next to him he couldn't be sure of it, but he just knew that Daemon was smiling under his cloak. "But I'm guessing that was the point," he noted not liking that Daemon was starting to enjoy his reactions.

"Exactly, boy. With that much chaos a whole lot of things would have gone unnoticed. And as an added bonus, neither world would have ever been able to recover completely from that," Daemon laughed, pissing Takuya off even more.

"What things did you want to go unnoticed?" Takuya asked wanting to get the discussion over with or at least recover his dominance over the talk. But if he couldn't, he still had that little fact hidden in the back of his mind to keep him calm and smiling.

"That… I don't know boy. It's our leaders plan," Daemon plainly stated.

"I guess he didn't want you spilling the secret if something like this occurred. You can never trust the henchmen to stay quiet," Takuya commented with a laugh, wiping away Daemons smug attitude.

"You little…" Daemon cursed at him, but was summarily cut off before he could finish.

"Now~ Now~ Daemon, let's stay on topic," Takuya teased, silencing Daemon once again, "Now, I want to know about the one you call the Traitor." Instantly Daemon's eyes widen in surprise. Not only did this human know about him and the virus, but he also knew about the Traitor. How could he be so well informed? "What did they do to get them labeled a Traitor?" He inquired bringing Daemon out of his thoughts and back to the conversation.

"She had an attack of conscience and took an important key that the Master needs to complete his plan," Daemon explained. Takuya took two things away from this piece of information. A hint of who the Traitor was, some female digimon who could fight off a demon lord, and that this evil plan Daemon spoke of required some kind of object or key.

"Any chance you want to share the identity of the Traitor or key with me?" Takuya inquired giving Aldamon a signal to press down on Daemon with more force in hopes of making the demon lord more compliant.

"Sorry, boy, but if I told you more than that the Master would definitely find out. And he would be very unhappy with me," Daemon noted once again looking away from the figure in black.

"And making me unhappy is something you're not afraid of?" Takuya said in a mock sad voice before giving Aldamon the, increase the pressure signal, again.

"Of course, boy. I fear him much more than I do you and your partner," Daemon uneasily laughed. Something about the way he said that made Takuya believe that he truly feared his Master more then he feared the death presently before him.

"I see…" Takuya whispered. He actually had his own idea as to the Traitors identity, but he couldn't be sure until he met them face to face. "How about telling me why you came here tonight? Was it for the Dark Spore?" He asked returning to the questioning. Again Daemons mind raced in surprise. How could this human know about the Dark Spore as well?

"For the same reason we needed the virus," Daemon plainly stated recovering quickly from his shock.

"Chaos again…" Takuya noted. He really didn't like the circular logic the conversation was implying.

"Yes…" Daemon smiled, his only source of pleasure in this situation being the confusion he was instilling in his captor. But the smile quickly faded when the figure in black got to its feet and looked down at Daemon. From how it moved so confidently it appeared that he had figured something out. After a few seconds a sly smile spread across the figure in blacks exposed mouth, sending an uneasy feeling rushing through Daemon. Takuya on the other hand was feeling a mixture of triumph and dread as a few of the key pieces of the recent events began to fall into place. All he would need to do is gauge Daemons reaction to his next question and he could firmly fit those pieces into place.

"Daemon… are you from this Zone?" Takuya firmly asked. At the question Daemon's digital blood froze, giving Takuya his answer and even shocking Aldamon with his question. However, Daemon had also gained a bit of new knowledge from the question as well. None that could do more then tell him how much more useless his struggling against this human truly was.

"You're not from this…" Daemon stutter in a state of shock and anger; but never got to finish his statement as he was silenced by Takuya's boot being planted on his face. Takuya slowly stooped down bringing his face closer to Daemons before he spoke.

"You're from this Zone, Daemon. But since you know what the question implies… I'm guessing your master isn't," Takuya concluded with a triumphant smirk. As Daemon twitched in pure anger Takuya reached down and took hold of the talisman that hung around Daemons neck. It tightly gripped in his hand he straightened back up, ripping it from around Daemons neck. The demon lord quickly moved to get it back, but a strong push from Aldamon reminded him of who was in charge of the situation.

Walking away from Daemon, Takuya squeezed the talisman tightly in his hand as he tried to think of a new question he could ask to move the talks forward, but nothing came to him. With the questions Daemon couldn't answer he had hit all the dead ends. He had really hoped to get more out of this encounter, but he would have to make do with what he had managed to get.

"Now release me human," Daemon snared, sensing that the talks had ended and hopeful his humiliation had as well. The figure in black's reaction to his order shocked Daemon. He just laughed and shook his head disappointingly. "You gave me your word human!" Daemon roared.

"And I have no intension of going back on our deal Daemon, even if you are complete scum. But what I find so funny is the fact that when you first arrived here you rose right out of the ground," Takuya retorted in an almost laughing tone.

"Your point, human…?" Daemon inquired, a sense of confusion falling over him. He could feel it now, as if he was missing something.

"Above you is my partner, Aldamon, in all his terrifying glory, but below you is nothing but asphalt and earth. So why don't you just pass through it like you did when you came out of hiding?" Takuya teased with his most triumphant laugh of the night. At this point Daemons humiliation reached its zenith as he realized he had had the means to escape the whole time and the human had known it.

"You will pay for this humiliation when we met again human!" Daemon screamed before he fell into the solid earth and vanished from the real world, leaving behind the victorious figure in black and his partner.

"I really expected something smarter from a demon lord," Aldamon laughed as he got up off of his knee and straightened out.

"Same here," Takuya responded with his own laugh while looking back at his partner.

"What just happened!? Who are you!? What is going on!?" Davis voice suddenly burst through the quiet at the end of interrogation. Turning to look at the boy he could see the confused and worried looks on all the second generation of Digidestineds faces. He couldn't really blame them. This was definitely a strange situation they had found themselves in.

"It's a long story… But first things first," he stated before he tossed Daemons talisman a few feet into the air before catching it again and hurling it at his partner. Aldamon caught it in his massive fist and squeezed it until it exploded under the incredible pressure and flames. The Digidestined just looked on in continued confusion, unsure of what he had just done. However, the questions would have to wait as the monitors in the window of the electronics store across the street from them burst forth with bright white light. When the light faded Gennai stood before the shop.

Ignoring the Digidestined he quickly locked onto the figure in black. "So what happened, Takuya?" Gennai inquired, quickly walking over to him. The Digidestined just stared at the two trying to figure out what was going on, but making little headway.

"The Q&A session just ended and I destroyed the artifact that Daemon was using to seal travel from the Digital World. All I did was point at him and his hand went right to it. Too predictable," Takuya simply answered as he folded his arms behind his head in a relaxed manor.

"I figured as much on that last part when all the gates were suddenly unlocked a few seconds ago, but how did the talk go? Did you find out anything useful?" Gennai questioned with a hopeful tone. He had been waiting a whole day for any kind of news of what was happening in the real world. Hearing that the Digidestined were safe and that the plan had gone off without a hitch was some great news to start out with. Now the icing on the cake for Gennai would be if Takuya had gotten some useful information out of the demon lord.

"A few things… but nothing as important as I had hoped for," Takuya answered with a sigh. He had really been hoping to get much more out of his plan.

"I see, but at…" Gennai began before he was interrupted, surprisingly by TK.

"Gennai, you know this guy?" TK spoke up, taking a few steps closer to the two. He had gotten closer to them, but hadn't dared to step any closer to Aldamon who watched him with a look of mild amusement. "Do you know what he's done?" He added eyeing the large fire digimon off to his side.

"Yes, on both counts, TK," Gennai simply answered. He was actually feeling a little nervous about explaining the whole complicated situation to them. They had probably spent a lot of time hating Takuya for what they thought he had done, which wasn't going to make what he had to do next any easier. "It's a long story, but I can promise you he's our ally," hei added instantly sending confused looks across the Digidestineds faces.

"What does that mean?" Yolei demanded. She had finally reached the point where anymore confusion and her head would explode, so she shouted to relieve the pressure.

"He's right you know," Takuya added not sure if it would actually help. True to his hunch, all he received was angry glares from a few members of group. With that warm greeting Takuya decided it was best to wait until after Gennai finished talking to them before saying anything else. That was fine with him since right now he something else to do.

"Hey, Aldamon, before we draw some unwanted attention I'm going to end the evolution," Takuya announced as he pushed a button on his D-tector and the large flame digimon was instantly swarmed in blue fractal code. The Digidestined watched as the swarm of code rapidly grew smaller until a red humanoid digimon about their height emerged from it and walked over to the figure in black. They had seen a lot of digimon, at many different levels in their time, but this digimon was a complete mystery to them. Was level was it? What kind was it? What was it capable of? None of the normal signs that would tell them were present. Like in some way this digimon was different than any they had seen before.

"He's been working with Lord Azulongmon this whole time," Gennai explained. With that the Digidestineds eyes grew with shock and they quickly forgot about Flamemon. This guy was actually working with the powerful deity digimon they had met only a few days ago. So did that mean he was an ally like Gennai was claiming?

"If Azulongmon needed some help why didn't he call us? Instead of this emo guy," Davis asked not liking the idea that the lightning dragon digimon might think that the figure in black was more capable than his team. Takuya on the other hand was completely fixated on what Davis had said.

"_Emo guy… Did he just call me emo…"_ Takuya thought to himself over and over again, before voicing his response. "Did you seriously just call me emo guy! That's really messed up!" He playfully moaned catching the team off guard, but he did have to admit it was pretty funny that Davis had gotten a hit on him. They had heard his playful tone when he was interrogating Daemon, but this one was warmer and friendlier. With just those simple words they all felt that they might be able to believe that he was an ally.

"The name isn't emo guy. It's Takuya Kanbara," the figure in black happily stated before reaching up and pulling back his hood to reveal his face. The Digidestined were greeted by his brown hair and brown eyes, but most notable was the crooked and gentle smile he was giving them.

"Takuya… Kanbara…" Kari and Yolei repeated in dreamy voices, as if they were trying to commit his face and name to memory. Their distracted attitudes didn't go unnoticed by the other members of the group, who felt their own mixture of feelings when they figured out the reason for their sudden change.

"You still seem emo to me!" Davis retorted with hints of anger in his voice. Takuya just let out an agitated laugh before letting it drop.

"Okay… Now, as for his reason for being here…" Gennai began before Takuya cut him off.

"It would probably be best if we wait until…!?" Takuya started before his eyes widened and he quickly whipped around to face an alleyway behind him. Without a word he ran to the alley leaving behind the confused group. When he reached the dark passage he gripped the wall and swung around it so he could look down the lane. Instantly, his face went white and his fist met the brick wall of the building. "What the..?" He mumbled before turning to the side looking for something else. "Oikawa ran off while I was questioning Daemon so it couldn't have been him…" He continued to mumble.

As Takuya stood there talking to himself the group and even his partner were trying their best to figure out what had brought about the strange change in him. Before they could reach even a guess he suddenly twitched and his hand shot down to his coat pocket from which he removed a pair of steel lenses goggles. He instantly brought the Scanners up to his eyes and hit one of the side buttons beginning the scan. Takuya moved his head from side to side until he found what he was looking for and charged straight at the Digidestined.

In no time at all he was able to close the gap between them and quickly blow past them to the street corner behind them. Flamemon and Gennai exchanged confused looks before they followed after him, while they in turn were followed by the Digidestined. At the corner he stopped and ducked most of his body behind a wall before punching it with his free hand. "No… How…?" He angrily growled under his breath.

"What's wrong?" Flamemon inquired, really wanting to know what his human counterpart had noticed.

"The kids…" Takuya answered pointing around the wall. The group turned the corner and instantly spotted a large group of young boys and girls talking to a collection of cops who seemed very excited to see them. The Digidestined took note of the fact that many of the children they were seeing had been among those reported missing over the last few days.

"Who are they?" Ken asked unsure if he wanted the answer.

"They were Oikawa's leverage over you until Takuya got them out of the van…" Flamemon explained making Kens stomach sink. "But how did they get past us to the police station…?"

"Isn't the fact that they're now safe and will be returned to their families a good thing?" Gennai questioned still not getting what could possibly be wrong with this situation. Takuya just looked on in concern, making everyone worry even more. "Takuya, what's wrong?" He knew that he was missing something. Since he had met this boy he had never been at a loss for words, but now he seemed very worried and confused.

Sighing, Takuya handed Gennai the pair of Scanners and motioned for him to hold them up to his eyes. As soon as Gennai did his field of vision was replaced by a digital wire frame image and in the center of it all, was the children. "Focus on the kids," Takuya ordered. They didn't seem to be any different than the cops around them except for the red rotating targets over the back of their necks. At the center of the target a very dark and small spot seemed to be radiating a dark purple aura. "What is that…?" Gennai gasped unable to take his eyes off of the strange anomalies before him.

"They're Dark Spores…" Takuya plainly stated with hints of anger and confusion coursing through each word.

* * *

To be continued…


	13. Meeting Place at Twenty Stories

**Chapter 13**

**Meeting Place Twenty Stories above the City**

"How could they have Dark Spores!? Oikawa failed with Ken and ran off scared and never would have had the chance," Flamemon interjected in shock. Earlier that night Takuya had explained what Oikawa had planned for tonight with Ken, the kidnapped children, and the Dark Spores. But it somehow turned out the same way even without Oikawa in the mix.

"I'm not sure… Maybe you can't change some destinies. Or more likely this was the doing of the, Master, Daemon spoke of," Takuya gave the best answer he could while never taking his eyes off of the children. The kids seemed to be acting normally as they talked to the officers who took notes of everything they said.

"What do these Dark Spores have to do with me?" Ken suddenly demanded after making a slight connection between the Dark Spores and whatever Oikawa wanted from him. Looking away from the children and towards Ken, Takuya sighed realizing he and Flamemon had said too much in front of the boy not to tell him everything he knew about his unique situation. Besides, in the other Zone this was the same night he had learned the truth, which was important to what was coming their way over the next couple of days. Deciding it was better to show him first than coming right out and telling him Takuya reached over and retrieved his Scanners from Gennai and handed them to Ken.

"Look at the back of the children's necks," Takuya instructed him. Ken quickly complied with the older boys order and put the goggles up to his eyes like Gennai had. After a few seconds he saw the same targets and black spots Gennai had seen.

"Are those black spots the Dark Spores?" Ken inquired, an uneasy feeling growing within him as memories of a forgotten past replayed far too quickly before him. They came to him like the flashes of a camera, far too bright and fast to see.

"Yes," was Takuya's only response as he stretched out a hand and pointed to a spot over Kens shoulder a few feet away. Ken followed the directions and found himself staring into a black space.

"I don't…" Ken attempt to raise a question, but Takuya quickly cut him off.

"Hold on. I need to turn off the active penetrating scan feature," Takuya reach over and pressed on of the bottoms that lined the frames of the goggles.

There was a low click and the black space was suddenly filled in with squares of green wireframe with something standing in the center. The Scanners locked onto the figure in the middle and highlighted a Dark Spore implanted in its neck.

"Another person with a…." Ken stopped in the middle of his sentence and froze in place.

"Ken, are you alright?" Davis and Yolei asked in unison when his expression turned sickly. They both were growing more and more concerned the longer he just stood there not saying a word. Off to the side Takuya just quietly watched Ken take in this revelation; hoping that he could deal with it.

"Ken, what is it?" Wormmon pleaded with his partner to answer. He really didn't like how Ken was acting.

After a few seconds Ken waved his hand slightly before lowering the Scanners down from his eyes and getting the answer he didn't want. Straight ahead of him was a deeply tinted store window turned into a perfect mirror by the dark night, and there reflected in its surface was him; right where the figure with the Dark Spore in his neck should have been standing. But now Ken knew he had been looking at himself the whole time and the Dark Spore in his own body.

"There is a…" Ken whispered in an emotionless voice, not wanting to say the last part out loud, as he pawed at the back of his neck.

"Oikawa wanted to copy the Dark Spore in you and implant it in those children," Takuya stated, deciding that he needed to confirm Ken's conclusion. This comment sent stunned ripples through the Digidestined as they tried to come to terms with what the new arrival had just said about their friend.

"Ken…?" Yolei asked after seeing the boy take a stumbling step backwards away from his reflection. Neither she nor the rest of the group knew what to say to make this situation better, but they were trying their hardest to figure it out.

"But when… The desert!" Ken stuttered as the memories slowed and he was able to recall his actually first venture into the Digital World. "It's inside me!" He panicked.

Seeing his reaction Takuya pushed off of the wall with a sigh and slowly walked over to the boy who looked at him, but didn't register his existence. He walked right up to him and quickly raised an arm and calmly placed his hand on Kens head. For a moment he just looked at Ken with concern before he tightened his grip on his hair and pulled his head back so the boy was forced to look him in the face. Now he was definitely acknowledging his existence.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing?" Davis yelled as he and TK moved to defend Ken after seeing him struggle under Takuya's grip.

"Stop that, right now!" Takuya demanded of Ken bringing Davis and TK's movements to a sudden halt. "You've gone how many years with it in your body and you're still fine, so how should this change anything?" He continued to yell directly at Ken.

The only thing going through Ken's head right now was how could this guy actually be talking to him like this wasn't anything to worry about. How could he possibly know how he was feeling right now? "There's one of those Dark Spores inside of me and you're telling me to calm down!" Ken suddenly yelled back. This brought a small smile to Takuya's face.

"Think of it this way, it might help explain the whole Digimon Emperor phase you went through," Takuya teased. This last prod proved to be too much for Ken as he erupted in anger.

"Shut up!" Ken screamed, swinging his fist and delivering a strong punch to the older boys jaw. The instant he did Ken froze unable to believe what he had just done, while Takuya stumbled back slightly, his head cocked backwards and to the side, away from Kens blow. The rest of those gather tried to get over the shock of what they had just seen him do before realizing that he might actually be in some serious trouble right now. This guy didn't seem to have any problems with going head on with digimon, so what could he do with a younger boy who had just struck him.

Even though Ken realized the gravity of the position he found himself in now, he didn't really care. He was just too angry; but it didn't stop him from pausing to assess the situation. In this case evaluating the situation meant he just stared at Takuya's closed eyes fearing the response he would get when they opened again. But the response that came was one he hadn't been expecting. When his eye opened again a big smile spread across Takuya's face and he began to laugh as he brought his head back to its normal position. Ken and the Digidestined were at a loss for words as they tried to figure out if he was really just some kind of psychopath, but Takuya just continued to laugh and lightly rub his jaw.

"Nice right," he suddenly spoke, shaking Ken from his defensive position to one of confusion and embarrassment.

"Thanks… I didn't mean…!?" Ken began to apologize before he remembered why he had hit the guy in the first place. "You had no right to say those things!" He yelled as he balled up his fist again. In response Takuya took a step back putting a bit more distance between him and the angry boy. Ken's punch might not have hurt him much, but he really didn't feel like getting punched in the jaw again.

"True… But at least you're letting out your frustration," Takuya playfully noted. "Holding it in isn't good for your health," he added with a whimsical tone. That was when Ken noticed he actually felt better about the situation. By getting angry, yelling, and being somewhat physical towards Takuya he had actually recovered himself. But the fact that Takuya had gotten him angry on purpose so he would vent also occurred to Ken, which made him feel bad about striking the older boy.

"You did that on purpose… so I would hit you…" Ken inquired becoming more embarrassed by the second. He was smart enough that he didn't really need Takuya to confirm it, but he still had to ask. Takuya didn't answer him except for a short chuckle before turning away from the boy to go back and check on the now rescued children; however, his progress was quickly brought to a stop by Kari. Apparently while he had been concentrating on Ken she had left the group and walked right up to him.

"Is there something I can help you with…?" Takuya began to ask the younger version of Kari who was looking up into his face. She didn't answer. Instead she raised her hand and placed it gently against his cheek, inspecting the spot where Ken had punched him with a look of concern. At this Takuya had to fight his natural impulses. The blush that threatened to burst out across his face and the want to pull the girl into a big hug. He had gone two months without hearing Kari's voice or feeling her soft touch, and here was this girl that was like her in so many ways. It was far too confusing for his tired mind.

"Does it hurt?" Kari quietly asked as she gently ran her soft fingertips down his check to the red area on the left side of his jaw. The gentle warmth of her skin slowly returning the heat to Takuya's frozen cheeks, cold from a whole day of being exposed to the elements.

"Naw… Trust me, I've taken a lot worse in the past," he returned unsure of how he should be acting at the moment. Kari just looked at him with more concern knowing that he was probably telling her the truth about having been through worse. How much worse she couldn't be sure. Around them everyone's attention was drawn to the two's exchange which was being met with mixed feelings.

"Uhh… Takuya! I hate to interrupt, but I think we have a problem here?" Flamemon called out to his partner. Takuya painfully broke contact with the young girl and quickly made his way back to the corner. He ducked his head around the bend and instantly saw the problem Flamemon had been talking about. A few of the children were now pointing down the street towards them. Obviously telling the police where they had been being held. This suspicion was only confirmed when a few cops began running in their direction.

"Not good! We need to get out of here! Now!" Takuya ordered turning back towards the group and motioning for them to run too.

"Not before you tell us what's going on here," Davis demanded not moving from his position.

"Fine! Stay here and explain all of this to the cops when they find you at the scene of a kidnapping. Not to mention the destruction of city property," Takuya's eyes glanced to the holes in the road before he ran past the group and ducking down a dark alley. A few seconds later he could hear the group turn the corner behind him as well. Apparently they were more for the follow him idea, than the stay and get arrested plan.

"Where are we going?" Gennai inquired of Takuya after they had put some distance between themselves and the street.

"Besides from further away from that street and the cops… wherever the rest of the Digidestined of this Zone are so we can have a nice long talk," Takuya called back to the digital man without stopping.

"And do you know where that is?" Flamemon asked wondering if his partner had considered that part, and they weren't just running around blindly.

"I felt that the whole putting distance between ourselves and that street to be the more important part of the plan," Takuya yelled back sarcastically. After the group had put enough distance between themselves and the closest cop they settled into a side alley to catch their breath.

"Okay… now that… we're safe… what's going on…?" Davis asked in-between gasps of air. When Takuya didn't answer Davis gathered his strength and lifted his head up to look at the older boy. Instantly, he saw two things he didn't like. The first thing that he didn't like was that while they all seemed tired and out of breath from the long run, Takuya didn't even seem to have broken a sweat. He was just leaning there calmly against the wall waiting for them to recover. The second thing he didn't like was that while everyone had kept their distance from him, Kari hadn't. He was further up the alleyway, away from group, watching the adjoining street, and right next to him was Kari, hunched over trying to catch her breath.

"Are you going to be okay?" Takuya asked the young Kari after she let out a few small coughs, most likely a symptom of breathing in too much cold winter air, too quickly.

"I'll… be fine…" Kari did her best to smile at him through the tiredness and discomfort.

"So what do we do next?" Ken inquired of Takuya. Ken had noticed before he spoke that he had recovered faster than the others. Normally he would have contributed this to his years of playing soccer and a strong body, but now he didn't know what to think. Could it be the influence of the Dark Spore? Whatever it was meant to do.

"We meet up with the rest of your group so I don't have to explain what's happening more than once," Takuya simply answered while he continued to scan the streets for any sign of trouble.

"Then we should probably get going," Kari stated after she had recovered for the most part. Looking at the young girl Takuya understood that was probably her sign of compliance. Meaning he at least had gained her trust without an explanation, even if he had no idea how he had done it.

"Right. I'll follow you guy once you've recovered. But until then, wait here," Takuya ordered before he walked out from the alley and began to leave the group and his partner behind.

Seeing the older boy leaving them Kari tiredly pushed off the wall and chased him around the corner. "Wait! Where are you going?" She questioned, having quickly caught up with Takuya.

"I told BlackWargreymon to meet up with me on the roof of a building not too far from here if we got separated," Takuya explained pointing to a twenty story building in the distance. "Just wait here with the others until I get back," he added before walking off again.

"Kari, we should probably listen to him. I don't know if we can trust him, but I don't think we have any other choice right now," Gatomon suggested, finally voicing her opinion after a very long period of silence. Kari said nothing in response as she watched Takuya walk away. After a few seconds she decided it would be best to listen to the boys and her partner's advice and return to the group, but this decision would prove to be a few seconds too late in coming.

As she began walking back to the alley a police car suddenly came rolling around the corner of the street and quickly painted Kari with its small searchlight. Instantly the girl froze in place, unable to think of what she should do. The cars tires releases a low screech as it stopped and the two front doors popped open. From out of the car stepped two large officers with flashlights in hand. Kari and Gatomon's minds raced for what to do next when Kari suddenly felt something take hold of her hand and pull her backwards. When she turned she saw Takuya gripping her hand and pulling her along as he ran down the street, away from the approaching officers who were now giving chase.

"Ta… Takuya…" Kari stuttered in-between the jolts she was getting each time he pulled her along, forcing her to increasing her speed.

"What the hell did those kids tell them?" Takuya cursed. It was very strange. The cops hadn't even hesitated to investigate Kari. Why were they looking into a young girl like Kari when they should have been looking for the much older man, Oikawa? Something was definitely wrong here.

"What's… going… on?" Kari asked trying to figure out her situation. I didn't feel right running from the police, but from the way Takuya acted it seemed very important that they did.

"I'm not sure!" Takuya answered turning his head to check on their pursuers. Over the charging cops shoulders he could see Flamemons head peeking out from behind the wall of the alley the rest of the group was hiding down. Luckily the police had been so distracted by chasing the two of them they had run past the others hiding spot without noticing them. "Flame! Don't follow or wait! Go!" He yelled back confusing the officers who couldn't figure out what he was saying or who he was even talking to. Flamemon just nodded before his head vanished back behind the wall.

"Now, let's lose these guys," Takuya smiled mischievously. He would really have preferred to lose the cops on foot, but two things were working against him. First, they would have had to attract two of the most physically fit police officers he had ever seen; which was allowing them to keep up with his pace. Second, he was dragging Kari along behind him, and her smaller steps were slowing him down and allowing their pursuers to slowly close the distance.

"I guess I've got no choice than," Takuya sighed as he pulled out his Runners Phone and selected the 'Jump' function. He then proceeded to punch in a few buttons until he lined up a Jump location and hit the enter button, but nothing happened. In a state of confusion Takuya lifted the phone back up to eye level and was greeted by a red error message. Below the message lines of text continually speed by. 'Unknown organic life form! To avoid dangerous complications wait five minutes while new organic life form is scanned and added to system database. Then repeat Jump attempt,' it read.

"Just great!" Takuya cried out giving Kari's arm another yank, speeding her up past her max running speed. Now she was straining herself to keep up with him and accidently stumbling every few steps. She wasn't going to be able to keep up this pace much longer and the two officers continued to close in on them. "Damn! Now I'm going to have to do something a lot more drastic!" He growled knowing he wouldn't have the five minutes to wait for the scan of Kari to complete.

As Kari stumbled again under his grip Takuya pulled her down another alley, hoping to find a place to disappear. Down the alleyway he found an old rusted dumpster, a few dinged up metal trash cans, an old fire escape, and the back door of one of the buildings.

"_The fire escape!"_ Takuya thought to himself before he realized something important. _"No… I have Kari with me and I'd never be able to get her up it in time."_ Abandoning the idea of climbing to roof to escape Takuya turned his attention to the only other option. Sliding to a stop in front of the door Takuya turned and delivered a powerful spin kick to the door, easily separating it from its locks and hinges.

"Wait! This doesn't seem right…" Kari tried to interrupt him, but another yank from Takuya pulled her inside. Her only real objection about this was that now they weren't just running from the police, but now they had also just committed breaking and entering. It seemed that ever since she had met him she was doing a lot of things she never expected to do; which was quite an achievement since she had only really known him for less than thirty minutes.

Takuya continued to pull Kari along by the hand as they quickly made their way through the dark hallways of what appeared to be small office building. Soon they reached the front desk which terminated at a plate glass window and main door. "Now…?" Takuya quickly tried to think of the next step of his plan and ignore the approaching steps of the officers, who had already followed them inside. Then it hit him. He quickly made his way to the reception desk and pulled the chair out from behind it. Grabbing it by the back he prepared to throw it through the glass door. That was until Kari slid in front of him and put her arms out stopping him from progressing any further.

"What are you thinking about doing?" Kari demanded an answer in a whisper.

"I'm going to throw this chair, through that glass, so they think we escaped back onto the streets," Takuya simply stated like a child who had been caught by his mother while doing something bad. Kari simply sighed before walking over to the door, turned the lock, and pushed the door open. "I… I knew that…" He laughed embarrassingly and set the chair back down.

"You destroy a lot of stuff you know that…" Kari whispered in a playful tone. "It must be a boy thi…" She tried to finish before Takuya grabbed her again and pulled her over to the large reception desk. He then ducked down underneath it and quickly dragged her under with him. Then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest so that they couldn't be seen from the outside. As soon as he had done that the first of the two cops burst into the reception area and quickly spotted the open front door.

"They went out the front!" The first cop called back to his partner in a young, but gruff voice.

"You look for them while I call for some backup," the older officer ordered while pulling a radio from behind his back. The younger officer quickly disappeared out of the door while the older one contacted his precinct and requested some support units.

While Takuya crouched there listening for the two cops, making sure that he would know when they were gone, Kari was having her own personal crisis. She was pressed up against the strong, firm chest of a cute older boy. Her head was nestled right under his neck and so close to him that she could hear his heartbeat. She was straddled over him with one of his legs running between both of hers and rubbing against her inner thighs. She had never been this close to a guy before, let alone held in such a manner or touched in such areas. Kari was just glad that it was dark in the office building or she was sure Takuya would be able to see how red she was turning.

The quiet continued until the older cops footsteps could be heard exiting the office building. With the sound of the glass door swinging shut and the lock engaging Takuya was final able to breathe a sigh of relief. "Well at least now you can't complain that we don't do things together," he badly joked hoping to relax the nervous girl. He assumed that her flushed appearance and slight tremble was due to the multiple laws they had just broken, and not the fact that she was worried he could hear her heart pounding out of her chest.

"Do you really think that's appropriate right now?" Gatomon asked unsure of how the boy could be acting so lightheartedly at a time like this. She was also probably feeling somewhat frustrated since she was being crushed against the side of the desk behind Kari's back. With a sigh Takuya twisted and adjusted his body so he could slide out from beneath Kari and get out from under the desk. He silently and slowly raised his head over the top of the desk and began scanning his surroundings for any signs of trouble.

When he found the office and street empty he bent back down and addressed Kari and Gatomon. "They're gone, so let's get moving."

"Right…" Kari answered taking the hand Takuya offered her. He gentled pulled her to her feet before giving her a pat on the head as a sign of approval and comfort. "So what do we do now?"

"Well, the building where BlackWargreymon's waiting for me is about a block away now. So we should be able to get there pretty quickly if we use the streets… if we can avoid another run-in with the police that is," Takuya sighed not looking forward to having to cross the remaining distance on foot with police backup on the way, but he didn't really have a choice in the matter. He hadn't started to scan of Kari so he couldn't use the Jump feature and he probably wouldn't have five minutes to wait and do it now. The two cops support would arrive soon and they would probably start by securing the office building since it was now a crime scene.

"Okay," Kari added with an approving nod. With her agreement Takuya made his way over to the door and slowly pushed it open. Sticking his head out as little as he possibly needed to be able to scan the street, he began to look for the officers. When he didn't see any sign of them or the backup he motioned for Kari to exit and quickly make her way across the street to the alleyway on the other side. Soon they had crossed to the other side of the block, just outside the building where Takuya had arranged to meet BlackWargreymon. Looking at the building Kari wondered if he had just chosen it because it was the tallest one in the area.

"I know that look. You're wondering if I only chose this building because it's the tallest one in the area," Takuya noted catching Kari by surprise. Takuya might not have been so good at reading his girlfriend, but before they had parted ways two months ago he had learned a few things. And he saw a lot of those qualities and signs in this younger version.

"No… I…" Kari stuttered fearing that the older boy might have actually been able to read her mind.

He just laughed in response. "Actually that's exactly why I chose it," confirming her suspicions.

"What…!?" Gatomon gasped in response while Kari hoped there was more to his choice.

"But being the tallest one in the area makes it easy to find no matter where you are, and no one will be able to see me meeting up with a two story digimon on the roof," Takuya commented sharing his reasoning with the two. They instantly felt better knowing that he had put so much thought into his choice. It made him seem more trustworthy then he had been a second ago. "Okay, we should hurry before someone spots…!?" He suddenly cut off right in the middle before grabbing Kari by the shoulders and pushing her up against the brick wall of the alley. In another quick motioned he lifted his hood over his head and threw open his coat before pressing himself up against the young girl. The ends of the coat instantly shut out the light of the streets and Kari found herself looking up into the brown eyes of the boy.

"What are you…?" Kari began to ask hoping he couldn't see the blush that was already spreading across her face. Gatomon on the other hand was preparing to tear the boy to shreds if he tried anything with Kari. But before Takuya could answer and Gatomon could sharpen her claws on his face, light flooded the alleyway and the sound of tires slowly creeping across the asphalt could be heard a short distance away. The light leisurely made its way across the alley and passed over them, but thanks to the dark fabric of his jacket and Takuya's choice of hiding spot they looked like nothing more than shadows cast off by the odd angles present in the alley.

When the light vanished Takuya pushed off of the wall, separating himself from the fidgeting girl. After they had recovered from the sudden experience the three ducked their heads out and watched as a cop car rolled around a corner and out of view. It was most likely part of the backup the original two officers had called for. Not wasting any more time Takuya took Kari by the hand once more and quickly made his way across the street. But now that he was standing right outside of the building he realized he faced a whole new problem. His original plan had been to use the Jump function he had received from Azulongmon to get to the roof, but now that wasn't an option with Kari by his side. Now, he was facing the reality that he had no idea how he was going to get to the roof with the front doors locked and the building shutdown for the night.

"Is there something wrong?" Kari inquired. He had been standing there staring up at the building, looking like he was lost in thought for a while now.

"No… not really. I just don't have any idea on how we're going to get to the roof," Takuya laughed like it was nothing to worry about. But his tone only hid the embarrassment he was feeling right now; especially with the looks he knew he must be getting from his two companions.

"What do you mean you don't know how we're going to get to the roof!?" Gatomon cried still unable to figure out whether the guy was trustworthy or not. This recent development pushed her closer to the side of not. "How could you not have figured out how to get to your own meeting place?" She added rubbing it in.

"It's not that I didn't have a plan. The original plan just kind of… fell through," Takuya sighed before he made his way around the side of the building in hopes of finding a way up to the roof. This would probably have gone better if he had actually checked out the building beforehand, but instead he had just picked it out of the skyline from a distance before he headed to his ambush.

As soon as he turned the corner he was greeted with the familiar rusted dumpster and old trash cans that could be found in any of the alleyways throughout the city. Puddles of dirty water sat in the shadows where they slowly froze over in the dropping temperature of the night. His eyes darted about looking for any way into or up the building. The search would come to an end when he spotted the cold black metal ladder of a fire escape hanging about ten feet in the air.

"That'll do," Takuya said to himself before he took off down the alley in a full sprint. Right before he reached the old dumpster he kicked off of the wall, launching him onto the lid. Without losing his momentum he kicked off of the dumpster and leapt towards the opposite wall and the fire escape. When he was close enough he wrapped an arm around one of the ladders rungs. The ladder instantly gave way and descended to the ground below, coming to a shuttering stop a few inches from the concrete. At the entrance to the alley Kari and Gatomon looked on in shock. The guy's abilities seemed to surprise them at every turn.

"After you, ladies," he motioned with a smile for the two to begin ascending the ladder while he held it down. Kari and Gatomon quickly made their way to the ladder and began to climb, closely followed by Takuya. With that done, the three began the twenty story climb up the metal stairs to the roof. After about ten stories Kari finally got around to asking Takuya a question she had wanted to ask since they reached the building.

"Do you trust him?" Kari inquired of Takuya as they cleared another floor. He turned back to look at the girl without stopping his ascent and for a moment his gaze remained on her before he turned his attention back to the front. When he didn't answer Kari thought it might have been because he didn't know who she was talking about. It was understandable since she hadn't used a name in the question, but before she could rephrase it he answered.

"Do I trust, BlackWargreymon…?" Takuya asked out loud as if this was the first time he had even considered the question. Kari and Gatomon instantly focused all the attention they weren't using to climb the stairs on him, awaiting his answer. "I do," he simply stated in a serious voice.

"Why?" Kari followed up with.

"I guess it's because I just do. I don't really have any other reason than that," he answered. She had really hoped for more than that, however this guy didn't seem like the type that needed more than his gut instincts to make a decision.

"Don't you think that just trusting someone who nearly brought the Digital World to an end is pretty sketchy?" Gatomon commented becoming unsure of the boy once again.

"Not really," he simply replied. When he had first heard BlackWargreymons story from Kari and Tai he had understood how the control spire digimon must have felt. It was probably the same feeling of being lost as he had felt in Dominimon's twisted dream world years ago. As if he had been robbed of hi purpose before it could even begin. An experience like that can really teach you how to view the world differently. However, that only had a little to do with why he trusted BlackWargreymon. The biggest share of it just came from a feeling he got from him. "Hang around me long enough and you'll notice that the sketchy plans are kind of my thing," he laughed before pushing off of the final staircase bringing the roof into view.

"Been waiting long?" Takuya inquired of the large black digimon standing in the middle of the roof as he hopped over the raised lip of the building. After receiving only a nod of acknowledgement Takuya turned around and extended a hand to Kari which she took, allowing him to pull her up to the roof. Behind him he could hear BlackWargreymon shift uneasily. He had probably been adversely affected by Kari's sudden appearance. This was probably a good sign actually; it must have meant he felt some regrets about how he had treated the young Digidestined in the past.

Once they were on the roof Kari and Gatomon just stood there staring at their past tormentor. The whole time they had been making their way towards the roof they had known that they would eventually come face to face with him, but like everything that night, until it actually happened it didn't seem like it would really happen. Now, they were faced with a pretty awkward situation and were unsure of how to continue.

"So what happened to your two friends?" Takuya playfully inquired having noticed the uncomfortable atmosphere.

"They… got away…" BlackWargreymon answered disappointingly. Takuya had only expected him to chase them off if it came down to it, but it would seem that he had had other plans for Oikawa's henchmen.

"Haha! Don't let it get to you," Takuya laughed throwing off the tense mood on the roof. Something about his genuine laugh seemed to have a relaxing effect on people.

"Why are they here?" BlackWargreymon asked bring the tense atmosphere back in full force. "And where is Flamemon?"

"It's a long story, so let's just say some things happened and we got split up like this," Takuya sighed feeling quite uncomfortable now. "But we're going to meet up soon."

"Where…?" BlackWargreymon questioned uneasily. Somehow he knew that they weren't just going to meet up with Flamemon and Gennai. He knew the others he had hurt would be there, but he still hadn't figured out how he felt about facing them. If it was as difficult as looking the girl, Kari, in the eyes, it would be a challenge.

"Are you worried about meeting up with them?" Takuya asked knowing full well that BlackWargreymon knew who he was talking about. "Well, don't! If things get to be too much for you just remember you're a very powerful mega digimon who could easily crush them in that kind of situation," he laughed, earning him a surprised look from the three on the roof with him. Kari and Gatomon were shocked by the fact that he had actually said that considering he was suppose to be on their side, while BlackWargreymon was shocked for pretty much the same reason.

The three just continued to look at him while he walked over to Kari, patted her on the head and gave her a smile, before turning towards BlackWargreymon. After a few moments the mega digimons shock faded and his muscles relaxed. Then, he did something that Kari and Gatomon hadn't expected; something they weren't even sure he was capable of doing. He began to laugh. It wasn't an evil or angry laugh. It was a genuinely happy laugh. One that brought a smile to Takuya's face and finally broke the tense air of the situation. Something about how BlackWargreymon and Takuya were laughing now put Kari and Gatomon at ease, enough to trust them for now.

"So you ready to move out, Jet?" Takuya inquired after giving BlackWargreymon some time to enjoy his own happy mood. The mega prepared to answer before he stopped and thought about what Takuya had just said.

"…Jet…?" BlackWargreymon asked unsure of what Takuya had just called him; or if he was even been talking to him.

"Your nickname," Takuya simply answered. "BlackWargreymon's just so long to say. Jet's much simpler."

"But why…?" BlackWargreymon questioned with a slight tremble in his voice.

"You're black… like jet black the color. So I just took the first part of that and made it your nickname, plus it sounds cool. There's also the fact that you fly fast, but that's just a bonus," Takuya simply explained with a crooked smile. "Besides it's something that belongs to only you," he added with a more serious tone.

"_Jet… Jet… Jet…"_ BlackWargreymon repeated over and over again in his head. For the first time in his short life he had something other than what was born of control spires. He had a name. And it was given to him freely by a friend. _"Friend…"_ BlackWargreymon echoed in his head. Did he of all digimon consider Takuya, a human, a friend?

Realizing he was standing there drifting off into his own little world BlackWargreymon quickly shook himself free and bent down allowing Takuya to climb onto his back. Halfway up Takuya extended an arm to Kari who stared at it for a second before running across the roof and took hold of it. Once he pulled her up he motioned for BlackWargreymon to take off. And with that Jet took off into the night sky with a renewed purpose.

* * *

In a Zone Takuya wished he was in at the moment. In the Kamiya siblings bedroom Kari had just finished getting ready for bed and slipped into her pajamas. It had been another long day of school preparations and she was already tired by nine. However, it wasn't the aches of her body that were weighing her down as much as those in her heart for that special person she was missing. Putting her half finished glass of water down on the desk she walked over to the back of her door and removed the crimson leather coat that hung there. It was the same coat Takuya had wrapped around her on that cold morning when they parted ways two months ago.

"Takuya…" She sighed before sitting down on her bed and lifting her feet onto the mattress. She then rested the jacket on her knees and brought them up to her chest, before burying her face in the fabric. With that she inhaled, bring back strong memories of him. His scent still remained even after the two months she had been wearing it.

With her head leaned against it she tried to imagine she was burying her head into his strong back. Lost in those familiar feelings she began to drift off into a happy, but longing sleep.

* * *

Back where Takuya was, high above the city, the young Kari watched the lights of the city zoom by from Jets back. She continued to scan the landscape below for Matt apartment, where the older Digidestined should have been gathered and Davis and the others should have been making their way towards. Soon her vision changed from the city to the older boy seated in front of her. And there it stayed for a while, until she slowly leaned forward, unable to control her body, and put her head gently into his back.

"_It's strong,"_ she thought to herself as the world around her faded from existence. She had a problem with this boy. And it was one that couldn't ever come out in her favor.

* * *

**To be continued…**


End file.
